UCSD Physics Professor Max Di Ventra's sequencing by tunneling approach has now been demonstrated by the Japanese company Quantum Biosystems. The tunneling effect, or quantum tunneling, is a phenomenon whereby a microscopic particle uses quantum effects to "tunnel through" a potential energy barrier. Di Ventra has suggested to use this phenomenon to differentiate the different DNA bases and extract the sequence information. Quantum Biosystems has released the first reads of DNA using a new low-cost chip that interrogates single-stranded DNA based on this idea.

This new technology offers low-cost, label-free, high-throughput sequencing of DNA, RNA and proteins for personalized medicine.

Find out more about Quantum Biosystems and the technique at: http://www.quantumbiosystems.com