NYU chemists create 'nanorobotic' arm to operate
within DNA sequence
New York University chemistry professor Nadrian C.
Seeman and his graduate student Baoquan Ding have developed a DNA
cassette through which a nanomechanical device can be inserted and
function within a DNA array, allowing for the motion of a nanorobotic
arm. The results, reported in the latest issue of the journal Science,
mark the first time scientists have been able to employ a functional
nanotechnology device within a DNA array.
“It is crucial for nanorobotics to be able to
insert controllable devices into a particular site within an array,
thereby leading to a diversity of structural states,” explained Seeman.
“Here we have demonstrated that a single device has been inserted and
converted at a specific site.”
He added that the results pave the way for creating
nanoscale “assembly lines” in which more complex maneuvers could be
executed.
The results are based upon a device Seeman and his
NYU colleagues had previously developed. That component has enabled
the translation of DNA sequences, thereby potentially serving as a
factory for assembling the building blocks of new materials. The
invention has the potential to develop new synthetic fibers, advance
the encryption of information, and improve DNA-based computation. The
device, developed with NYU Chemistry graduate student Shiping Liao,
emulates the process by which RNA replicas of DNA sequences are
translated to create protein sequences. However, the signals that
control the nanomechanical tool are DNA rather than RNA. The
dimensions of the machine are approximately 110 x 30 x 2 nm.
In this study, Seeman and Ding developed a
framework that contains a binding site - a cassette - that allows
insertion of the device into a specific site of a DNA array. Changing
the cassette’s control sequences or insertion sequences would allow
the researchers to manipulate the array or insert it at different
locations. The researchers added a long arm to the framework so that
they could observe the structure undergoing a half-rotation. They
visualized their results by atomic force microscopy (AFM), which
permits features that are a few billionths of a meter to be visualized.
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