Meni Wanunu
Professor, Physics
Professor, Bioengineering
Affiliated Faculty, Chemical Engineering
Contact
- m.wanunu@northeastern.edu
- 111 Dana Research Center
360 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Social Media
Office
- 617.373.7412
Research Focus
Our group investigates biomolecules at the single-molecule level. We develop nanopore-based and other nanotechnology-based methods for probing the structure and dynamic behavior of biomolecules. We employ optical waveguides and single-molecule enzymatic approaches for RNA sequencing, and utilize engineered nanopore sensors for applications in single-molecule proteomics. We are experimentalists, but we also use advanced computational tools to perform big data analysis.
Education
- PhD, Chemistry/Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, 2005
Research Overview
Our group investigates biomolecules at the single-molecule level. We develop nanopore-based and other nanotechnology-based methods for probing the structure and dynamic behavior of biomolecules. We employ optical waveguides and single-molecule enzymatic approaches for RNA sequencing, and utilize engineered nanopore sensors for applications in single-molecule proteomics. We are experimentalists, but we also use advanced computational tools to perform big data analysis.
Selected Research Projects
- Direct RNA sequencing using electro-optical zero-mode waveguides and custom click fluorescent nucleotides
- – Principal Investigator (R01), National Institutes of Health
- Single-Chain nanopores for electroosmotic stretching and sequencing proteins
- – Principal Investigator (R01), National Institutes of Health
- Synthetic mRNA Control Set for Nanopore-Based Pseudouridine Modification Profiling in Human Transcriptomes
- – Co-investigator, National Institutes of Health
- Engineering Tunable Portal Hybrid Nanopores for High-Resolution Sequence Mapping
- – Principal Investigator, Oxford Nanopore Technologies
- Multiplexed electronic counting of scarce protein targets using nucleic acid nanoparticles
- – Co-Principal Investigator, National Institutes of Health
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- “Unidirectional Single-File Transport of Full-Length Proteins Through a Nanopore.” Yu L, Kang X, Li F, Mehrafrooz B, Makhamreh A, Fallahi A, Foster JC, Aksimentiev A, Chen M, Wanunu M. Nature Biotechnology 41, 1130–1139 (2023).
- Kang X, Wu C, Alibakhshi MA, Liu X, Yu L, Walt DR, Wanunu M. ACS Nano, 17, 5412–5420 (2023).
- “Threading single proteins through pores to compare their energy landscapes.” Tripathi P, Firouzbakht A, Gruebele M, Wanunu M., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, 119 (39) e2202779119 (2022).
Mar 19, 2024
Patent for Hybrid Nanopore Design Enhances Biodetection
COS/BioE Professor Meni Wanunu received a patent for “Lipid-free anchoring of thermophilic bacteriophage G20C portal adapter into solid-state nanopores.”
Mar 14, 2024
Developing Tools to Analyze Individual RNA Molecules
COS/BioE Professor Meni Wanunu and BioE Assistant Professor Sara Rouhanifard, in collaboration with Anna-Marie Pyle from Yale University, were awarded a $4.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) for “Direct RNA Sequencing Using Electro-optical Zero-mode Waveguides and Custom Click Fluorescent Nucleotides.”
Mar 05, 2024
Wanunu Receives Northeastern NAI Innovator of the Year Award
COS/BioE Professor Meni Wanunu received the Innovator of the Year award from the Northeastern University chapter of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Daniel Braconnier, a recent mechanical engineering PhD graduate, received the student innovator award.
Dec 07, 2023
2023 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2% of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above. The list below includes those […]
Dec 02, 2023
Wanunu’s Research Featured on the Cover of The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
COS/BioE Professor Meni Wanunu’s research on “A Marcus-Type Inverted Region in the Translocation Kinetics of a Knotted Protein” was featured on the cover of the November 30, 2023 issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
Aug 28, 2023
Wanunu Research Featured on the Cover of Nature Biotechnology
Research conducted by COS/BioE Professor Meni Wanunu on “Unidirectional Single-file Transport of Full-length Proteins through a Nanopore” was featured on the cover of the August 2023 issue of Nature Biotechnology.
Jun 27, 2023
Wanunu Receives $2M NIH/NHGRI Grant to Develop a Single-Molecule Protein Sequencer Based on Engineered High-Resolution Nanopores
BioE affiliated faculty member Meni Wanunu received a $2 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) for “Asymmetric Single-Chain MspA Nanopores for Electroosmotic Stretching and Sequencing Proteins.” Protein identification and single-molecule protein sequencing could revolutionize the understanding of health by providing a picture of the molecular state of the cell at the level of its most functional molecules.
Apr 24, 2023
Rouhanifard Receives $3.4M NIH Grant to Discover RNA Modification Sites Using Pseudouridine Modified mRNA
BioE Assistant Professor Sara Rouhanifard was awarded a $3.4 million NIH R01 grant for “Synthetic mRNA Control Set for Nanopore-Based Pseudouridine Modification Profiling in Human Transcriptomes.” The research has the potential to vastly increase insight into the epitranscriptome—changes in chemical modifications of RNA that can affect gene expression within cells—which could help identify new therapeutic targets and lead to new classes of drugs.
Nov 02, 2022
2022 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2 percent of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above. The list below includes […]
Jan 28, 2022
Measuring Viral Concentrations and Infectivity
BioE Assistant Professor Sara Rouhanifard and Affiliated Faculty Meni Wanunu were awarded a $250K PFI-TT NSF grant for “Developing an integrated platform for high accuracy measurements of viral particle count and infectious titer.”