With the support of the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Jason Dwyer and his research team at the University of Rhode Island will develop new tools and approaches to better understand how to fabricate and use a powerful new class of nanopore sensors. Nanopore devices are commercially available for single-molecule DNA sensing that supports a wide range of health-related applications such as personalized medicine. They are being developed for identifying proteins to enable earlier detection of disease, alongside other medical purposes. Nanopore devices are also useful for a wide range of other functions such as desalination and high-density molecular data storage readout. Developing better understanding of how to construct and exploit nanopores will thus pay dividends across these various domains of technology and human health. The work will focus on understanding and exploiting nanopore surface coatings. It will begin with elucidating fundamental molecular-level mechanisms of how the chemical properties of the coatings affect nanopore performance. It will then extend to investigating how to more reliably and easily recognize the various chemical building blocks of proteins, as a prelude to more elaborate protein identification applications. Student training will be a vital part of this effort, with an emphasis on broadly transferable skill development spanning from fundamental research planning to technical skill development to p