Patent ID: 8124417
Filing Date: 2012-02-28
Classification: C12Q,G01Q,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A method for pinpointing a target nucleobase in a nucleic acid, which comprises: scanning a nucleobase molecular tip on the nucleic acid to form multiple hydrogen bonds between the nucleobase molecular tip and the target nucleobase, wherein the nucleobase molecular tip is a gold tip chemically modified with a nucleobase complementary to the target nucleobase and thereby capable of forming multiple hydrogen bonds with the target nucleobase, and the complementary nucleobase is selected from the following thiol derivatives of adenine (I), guanine (II), cytosine (III) and uracil (IV); measuring the tunneling current due to hydrogen bonds between each nucleobase and the nucleobase molecular tip with scanning tunneling microscopy; and pinpointing the target nucleobase as the nucleobase from which the tunneling current is facilitated upon scanning the nucleobase molecular tip.