Re: [DIYbio] Ultra-Cheap DNA Printing/Sequencing

Perhaps it's time that we at DIYBio came up with our own means of DNA printing and sequencing. It may be rough and inaccurate at first, but I'm certain that the project will take off within a year or so, and eventually become industry-standard. It would be like the GNU/Linux of synthetic biology. ;) 

As a seed idea, we could use carbon nanotubes created using vapor deposition around nickle nanoparticles of around 12 nm in diameter. Then, in an argon atmosphere, the nanotubes would be doped with gold atoms on one side. DNA would be pulled through a stack of these nanotubes as in electrophoresis (from a positive charge to a negative one of the other side of the chamber) and surface interactions with the DNA bases could be monitored through the gold nanoparticles. It wouldn't be easy to pull off, but one divide could shotgun sequence DNA incredibly quickly with a high degree of accuracy. As for printing, DNA would be produced conventionally, but this time with a small laser at the end of the carbon nanotubes. If the DNA currently running through any given carbon nanotube did not match the desired strand, the laser at the end would activate, destroying the strand.