Meni Wanunu

Professor,  Physics
Professor,  Bioengineering
Affiliated Faculty,  Chemical Engineering

Contact

Social Media

Office

  • 617.373.7412

Research Focus

development of next-generation DNA and RNA sequencing methods; nanopores as molecular sensors; bioinspired sustainability solutions; optical and electrical analysis of biomolecular systems; electron microscopy and electron-beam shaping of nanomaterials

Education

  • PhD, Chemistry/Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, 2005

Research Overview

development of next-generation DNA and RNA sequencing methods; nanopores as molecular sensors; bioinspired sustainability solutions; optical and electrical analysis of biomolecular systems; electron microscopy and electron-beam shaping of nanomaterials

Wanunu Lab

Professor Wanunu’s research involves studying biosystems at the nanoscale (macromolecular and sub-molecular levels).

Wanunu Lab

Selected Research Projects

  • Direct Picogram DNA and RNA Sequencing Using Nanopore Zero-Mode
    • – Principal Investigator, National Institutes of Health
  • Engineering Tunable Portal Hybrid Nanopores for High- Resolution Sequence Mapping
    • – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
  • Nanopores in 2D Materials
    • – Principal Investigator, Oxford Nanopore Technology
  • Recognition Tunneling for Single Molecule RNA Sequencing
    • – Co-Principal Investigator, National Institutes of Health
  • Two-Dimensional Nanopores with Electro-Optical Control for Next Generation Biotechnological Applications
    • – Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
  • Understanding Transport in Biomimetic Carbon Nanotube Porin Membranes for Water Treatment and Osmotic Energy Harvesting
    • – Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation

Selected Publications

  • P. Tripathi, L. Shuai, H. Joshi, H. Yamazaki, W.H. Fowle, A. Aksimentiev, H. Fenniri H, M. Wanunu, Rosette Nanotube Porins as Ion Selective Transporters and Single-Molecule Sensors, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142, 2020, 1680-1685
  • X. Kang, M.A. Alibakhshi, M. Wanunu, One-Pot Species Release and Nanopore Detection in a Voltage-Stable Lipid Bilayer Platform, Nano Letters 19, 2019, 9145-9153
  • M. Mojtabavi, A. VahidMohammadi, W. Liang, M. Beidaghi M. Wanunu, Single-Molecule Sensing Using Nanopores in Two- Dimensional Transition Metal Carbide (MXene) Membranes, ACS Nano, 13, 2019, 3042-3053

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.”

Faculty

Apr 09, 2019

FY20 TIER 1 Award Recipients

25 COE faculty and affiliates were recipients of FY20 TIER 1 Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grants for 18 different projects representing up to $900K dollars of investment in research.

Faculty

Aug 21, 2018

$1M NSF Grant to Advance the Study of Single-Molecule Research

BioE Professor Jeffrey Ruberti (co-PI) along with bioengineering affiliated and College of Science faculty, including Professor Mark Williams (PI), and Associate Professors Penny Beuning (co-PI), Meni Wanunu (co-PI), and Ke Zhang (co-PI) were awarded a $1M NSF grant for the “Acquisition of a Lumick’s SuperC-TRAP correlative optical tweezers and fluorescence microscope (CTFM) system.”

Mar 19, 2015

FY16 TIER 1 Award Recipients

18 COE faculty and affiliates were recipients of FY16 TIER 1 Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grants for 11 different projects representing over $400K dollars of investment in research.

Faculty

Apr 04, 2012

FY13 TIER 1 Award Recipients

27 COE faculty and affiliates were recipients of FY13 TIER 1 Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grants for 21 different research projects.

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