Nanopore Technology for Protein Sequencing: Meni Wanunu’s Breakthrough in Proteomics

In this faculty spotlight, Meni Wanunu, Professor of Physics and Bioengineering at Northeastern University, is pioneering new tools to read proteins—molecules essential to life and disease—one at a time.

His lab focuses on two main areas: using nanopores (tiny holes that biomolecules pass through) to decode molecular sequences from electrical signatures, and developing waveguide-based methods to study enzymatic processes like reverse transcription for RNA sequencing. While DNA and RNA sequencing technologies have advanced rapidly over the past decade, protein sequencing remains a frontier challenge—and Wanunu’s team is one of the few in the world tackling it head‑on.

Their goal: to build devices that can identify disease‑related proteins in complex mixtures, paving the way for earlier diagnosis, point‑of‑care testing, and transformative proteomics applications in both research and healthcare.

Supported by NIH and other federal agencies, as well as commercial sources, Wanunu’s lab is also developing significant intellectual property that will shape the commercialization path for this technology. He envisions a future where these devices are used first by academic researchers, then in clinical settings, and eventually for personal health monitoring.

With support from Northeastern’s Center for Research Innovation (CRI), Wanunu has benefited from invention filing, market analysis, and introductions to potential licensing and commercialization partners—helping bridge the gap from academic R&D to real‑world impact.

📩 Interested in partnering? Reach out at cri@northeastern.edu
🔗 Learn more: https://cri.northeastern.edu/


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