Mark Akeson, Dept. of Biomolecular Engineering

Mark Akeson's research is focused on the use of nanopore detectors - instruments built around a tiny pore in a membrane or thin, solid-state wafer. These pores are just big enough to allow a single strand of DNA to pass through. Akeson and his collegues use the detectors to understand the dynamics and structure of DNA duplex ends, including those of retrotransposons and HIV. Akeson also investigates the coupling of processive DNA-modifying enzymes to nanopores, both protein and solid-state. Together with UCSC Professors William Dunbar and David Deamer, he has demonstrated enzymatic control of single DNA in nanopores with sequence specificity and real-time feedback control.