Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting is part of the Nanopore Wiki learning path. Troubleshooting nanopore work means connecting visible symptoms to pore state, sample quality, electronics, buffer chemistry, and analysis choices.
Core concepts
- Baseline drift often indicates temperature, electrode, membrane, surface, or flow problems.
- Sudden current jumps can indicate membrane rupture, pore changes, bubbles, or contamination.
- Decreasing event frequency may reflect depletion, clogging, adsorption, or pore inactivation.
- Analysis can reveal problems but should not be used to hide experimental instability.
Scientific basis
- Baseline drift often indicates temperature, electrode, membrane, surface, or flow problems.
- Sudden current jumps can indicate membrane rupture, pore changes, bubbles, or contamination.
- Interpretations should be tied to measurable quantities, experimental controls, and documented analysis settings.
- Claims should distinguish direct observations from downstream inference.
Diagnostic workflow
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Separate blank baseline, pore baseline, and sample recording phases. |
| 2 | Check noise, drift, and current level before interpreting events. |
| 3 | Compare sample traces with negative controls and repeat runs. |
| 4 | Document failed runs and suspected causes. |
Typical applications
- Laboratory SOP improvement.
- Field sequencing reliability.
- Training and quality control.
Quality checks
- Record platform, pore or flow-cell type, chemistry, voltage or acquisition settings, and software versions.
- Use negative controls, positive controls, and replicate measurements where the claim depends on specificity.
- Report limitations such as noise, bias, sample degradation, pore instability, or model-dependent analysis.
- Keep laboratory metadata linked to the raw signal or sequencing run before interpreting results.
Interpretation limits
- Changing multiple variables at once.
- Assuming every blockage is target binding.
- A single result should not be generalized beyond the sample, protocol, instrument state, and analysis pipeline used.
- Medical, legal, regulatory, or commercial decisions require domain-specific validation beyond this educational summary.