http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=2650 examining transformative technology Fri, 03 May 2013 19:22:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=2650#comment-799435 Nanodot: Nanotechnology News and Discussion » Blog Archive » Combining structural DNA nanotechnology and gold nanoparticles to make decorated DNA nanotubes Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:54:13 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=2650#comment-799435 [...] Combining the novel electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of either semiconductor or metallic nanoparticles with the molecular recognition properties of DNA strands, nanotech has used DNA strands to assemble gold and other nanoparticles into distinct 1-dimensional or 2-dimensional structures, or into periodic 3-dimensional crystals (see this post from last year). Complementing these capabilities, structural DNA has provided complex structures from designed, branched DNA molecules, including DNA tiles that can be programmed to assemble into various two-dimensional arrays. Sometimes these arrays have been observed to curl into DNA nanotubes, probably due to difficult-to-predict steric effects. Now researchers have been able to attach gold nanoparticles to DNA tiles and, by varying the size of the nanoparticles and the presence of DNA stem loops on some tiles, have been able to control the formation from the DNA tiles of various three dimensional DNA nanotubes in which the gold nanoparticles form stacked rings, single spirals, double spirals, or nested spirals along the length of the DNA nanotube. From Arizona State University, via AAAS EurekAlert “The gold standard: Biodesign Institute researchers use nanoparticles to make 3-D DNA nanotubes“: [...] [...] Combining the novel electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of either semiconductor or metallic nanoparticles with the molecular recognition properties of DNA strands, nanotech has used DNA strands to assemble gold and other nanoparticles into distinct 1-dimensional or 2-dimensional structures, or into periodic 3-dimensional crystals (see this post from last year). Complementing these capabilities, structural DNA has provided complex structures from designed, branched DNA molecules, including DNA tiles that can be programmed to assemble into various two-dimensional arrays. Sometimes these arrays have been observed to curl into DNA nanotubes, probably due to difficult-to-predict steric effects. Now researchers have been able to attach gold nanoparticles to DNA tiles and, by varying the size of the nanoparticles and the presence of DNA stem loops on some tiles, have been able to control the formation from the DNA tiles of various three dimensional DNA nanotubes in which the gold nanoparticles form stacked rings, single spirals, double spirals, or nested spirals along the length of the DNA nanotube. From Arizona State University, via AAAS EurekAlert “The gold standard: Biodesign Institute researchers use nanoparticles to make 3-D DNA nanotubes“: [...]

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