KINGSTON, R.I. – Dec. 4, 2025 – Jason Dwyer’s longstanding nanotechnology work at the University of Rhode Island has reached another critical stage with him receiving a substantial six-figure grant from the National Science Foundation.
Dwyer, a professor of chemistry and associate dean for research and graduate studies in URI’s College of Arts and Sciences, and his team have received a three-year, $464,964 grant to develop new tools and approaches to better understand how to fabricate and use a powerful new class of nanopore sensors. Dwyer hopes this work will help improve the ability to detect serious medical conditions more cost-effectively.
This latest study that Dwyer and his research team are embarking on continues the professor’s nearly two decades of research into single-molecule sensing and developing nanopore technology toward commercialization—work that has gained him international recognition over the years.
“We’re now in a space where we’re continuing to do discovery-based research, but because we want to make better tools commercially available, we are also using engineering approaches to refine the methods and nanofabricated devices,” Dwyer said. “This funding is key to bringing all of the earlier work together—the workforce development, the scientific discovery, and the engineering aspects for biomedical device development.”
Nanopore sensors are devices that detect and analyze single molecules by measuring changes in ionic current as the molecules pass through a nanoscale channel. New sensors are being developed to identify proteins to enable earlier detection of diseases, alongside other medical purposes.
Dwyer’s goal is to use nanopore sensors for biomedical diagnostics, scientific tests and technologies to detect, diagnose and monitor diseases and other health conditions. By taking various bodily fluid samples—such as blood, saliva, tears and sweat—the sensors could analyze each part of a molecule and complex protein structures in those samples in exquisite detail, which, Dwyer says, could pay massive dividends for human health.
“This is a huge game changer,” he said. “With this technology, we’re going to examine molecules one at a time. Using the nanopore like a pair of tweezers and magnifying lens we can then scrutinize the building blocks of the molecule. For a protein, for example, quickly and reliably determining its amino acid composition and sequence is game changing—it’s what everyone wants. Plus, lowering cost, increasing performance, and making things easier to use puts these diagnostics in the hands of people to use at home.”
There will be at least two URI Ph.D. students working with Dwyer on this three-year study, he says, with the potential of bringing undergraduate students aboard. Dwyer said the students’ work will entail taking samples and analyzing their signal characteristics using custom computer code and artificial intelligence to maximize the detail of molecular-level insights.
A new nanopore scanner will also be designed and built for this project. Dwyer says this scanner will help his team at URI better understand and then control how their devices operate, specifically by assessing the properties and effects of nanopore surface coatings.
“What surface coatings do is control how the world interacts with something. We’re squeezing molecules through an opening that’s not much bigger than the molecule itself, so having the right surface coating is critical,” Dwyer said. “What we hope to do on this technical level is to further improve our patented ability to coat our nanopores, because that opens up even greater vistas in terms of performance and the things that we can do with sensors. With further technological advances, we can start to target clinical diagnostics.”
The research will also provide students workforce training opportunities. Dwyer says the hands-on research will enable students to develop lab skills translatable to entering the life sciences industry or pursuing their own research as professors to train the next generation of students.