Chapter 7. Summary and Outlook

Measurement science has been stepping into single entity sensing. Nanopore electrochemistry as a powerful technique is attracting increasing attention for identifying and characterizing single cells, single particles, and even single molecules. Over the past decades, the biological nanopore-based single biomolecule interface has been extensively applied in probing nucleic acids and biomolecular interactions. Thanks to the advanced material science, the development of solid-state nanopores has been greatly promoted, showing new capabilities and features in single molecule analysis and single particle detection. Recently, nanopipettes have exhibited a great advantage in confining strong interactions between pore and analyte, electron-transfer processes and light inside, giving rise to the possibility of adopting nanopore sensing in a wide range of applications, including single-cell manipulating and analysis. Along with the development of nanopore electrochemistry, new data algorithms and high bandwidth instrumentation have also enabled researchers to look deeply into the intrinsic properties of single entities and therefore to associate them with chemical or biological processes. In future, nanopore electrochemistry will open up a new avenue for the better understanding of the chemical and biological world at the single entity level.