Patent ID: 7949472

Claim:
A method for obtaining a reading of a sequence of components in a polymer molecule, the method comprising: providing a pipette having a longitudinal axis and having a tapered region and having a pore with a selected pore diameter in a range of 1-40 nanometers (nm); providing a selected liquid in contact with an interior surface of the pore; impressing a selected voltage difference across the selected liquid within the pipette pore substantially parallel to the pipette longitudinal axis direction, and providing an ionic current value induced in the selected liquid; passing a polymer molecule, having a sequence of two or more polymer components, through the pore, and determining a change in the ionic current signal induced by passage of each of the polymer components through the pore; comparing each of the sequence of changes in ionic current signals with each of N reference ionic current change signals (N≧2), with each reference ionic current change signal corresponding to a reference polymer component drawn from a reference group of polymer components; and for at least one of the determined changes in ionic current signals for one of the polymer components, identifying the polymer component with the reference polymer component whose reference ionic current change signal is closest to the at least one determined ionic current change signal.