Surface conductivity of biological macromolecules measured by nanopipette dielectrophoresis

We report the measurement of the surface conductivity of biological macromolecules by dielectrophoretic trapping at the tip of a glass nanopipet. We find that the threshold voltage for trapping is a function of salt concentration and can be directly linked to the effective conductivity of the biomolecule and its solvation shell. The surface conductivities obtained for 20-mer single-stranded DNA, 40-mer double-stranded DNA, and yellow fluorescent protein are 7.9+/-1.9 nS, 5.3+/-0.7 nS, and 21.5+/-1.6 nS, respectively.