By blowing glass at the nanometer scale, scientists have created microscopic funnels that could aid the study of single molecules.

The technique is described in a study scheduled to be published next week in* Nanotechnology* by researchers from Cornell University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The authors were inspired by an accidental but fortunate observation. Microfluidics devices – tools for controlling small quantities of fluids – are traditionally made by bonding a glass cover to a lithographically etched glass plate.

Sometimes, however, trapped air causes the glass to expand – a nano-scale equivalent of techniques used by glassblowers to create curves.

By harnessing this phenomenon, the researchers were able to make funnels that gradually tapered to a seven-nanometer depth, some 1,000 times smaller than a single red blood cell.

"In the past," said study co-author Elizabeth Strychalski in a press release, "it was difficult to get single strands of DNA into a nanofluidic device for study."

Future funnels could be used as part of a device to identify single base pairs of DNA. They could even be designed to culture single, isolated cells, permitting scientists an unprecedented degree of cellular control.

Non-planar nanofluidic devices for single molecule analysis fabricated using nanoglassblowing[Nanotechnology]

Image: A nanoglassblown funnel tapering to 150 micrometers, courtesy of Cornell University.

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