Meni Wanunu

Professor,  Physics
Professor,  Bioengineering
Affiliated Faculty,  Chemical Engineering

Contact

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.

Wanunu Lab

Professor Wanunu’s research develops devices for studying biomolecules and biomaterials.

Wanunu Lab

Selected Research Projects

  • 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

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).

Faculty

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.”

Faculty

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.”

Faculty

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.

Faculty

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 […]

Faculty

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.

Faculty

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.

Faculty

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.

Sara Rouhanifard

Faculty

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.

Faculty

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 […]

Sara Rouhanifard and Meni Wanunu

Faculty

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.”

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