Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute Zürich ( ETH Zürich) have created a nanotransport system that moves molecular cargo between specific pick-up and delivery zones on a chip. In future, the team hopes to develop a nanoscale assembly line and eventually use the transport system to improve self-healing materials. “Recreating the intracellular transport systems, where motor proteins deliver packages like FedEx couriers, in a synthetic environment has been a goal in nanotechnology for the past decade,” says Henry Hess, an expert in biomedical engineering at Columbia University. “The work is remarkable for harnessing diverse concepts and approaches – including DNA nanotechnology, microfabrication, self-assembly and molecular motors – to realise a complex nanoscale process.” Read More Paper Movie
Posts Tagged ‘dna’
Molecular Shuttles Move Nanocargo
Posted in Nanotechnology 
Tags: cargo-between, columbia, dna, eventually-use, henry-hess, Institute., intracellular, moves-molecular, Nanotechnology, past-decade, Swiss, swiss-federal, team, the-transport, Transport 
Comments OffOffice Paper Conducts Electricity
. Nanotechnology has been used by a New York design office to change a sheet of standard office paper into a flexible surface that can conduct electricity. The work was done by Decker Yeadon LLC , a firm that specializes in finding novel applications for advanced materials, such as smart materials and nanomaterials. They recently demonstrated the conductivity of the office paper by using it as a conduit to power an LED lamp. Decker Yeadon first created a liquid solution that they’re referring to as a NanoINK. The ink that they made primarily consists of carbon nanotubes, deionized water, and a chemical surfactant that help the nanotubes disperse in the water. The nanotubes they used are only 1.5 nm in diameter, which is smaller than a DNA molecule. Their NanoINK was used to impart the electrical properties of the nanotubes onto substrates that they coated with the ink, including cotton fabric and paper. The work opens up a number of possibilities for applications, in architecture and other design disciplines, that might take advantage of the printable, conductive ink. Read More
Posted in Nanotechnology Tags: Design, dna, Electrical, Nanotechnology, Nanotubes, Office, such-as-smart, the-nanotubes, Water Comments OffUsing liquid crystals to detect DNA hybridization on polymeric surfaces with continuous wavy features
In this study, we examined the orientational behavior of thermotropic liquid crystals (LCs) supported on a film of DNA that was chemically immobilized on a nanostructure surface. The surface was comprised of gold film deposited onto a polymer substrate that had a sinusoidal distortion normal to the surface, leading to a parallel array of peaks and troughs. The sinusoidal structures were produced by treating a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate with oxygen plasma and buckled on a cylindrical surface. This patterned PDMS was then used to create replicas of the associated relief structures on another polymer surface, poly(urethaneacrylate), where a film of gold was deposited. The gold films were functionalized with thiol-modified DNA, and then used as substrates for the hybridization of a complementary strand of DNA (cDNA). The orientation of nematic 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) was found to be parallel to the plane of the surface-immobilized DNA before incubation with a solut…
Posted in Nanotechnology Tags: create-replicas, deposited-onto, dna, hybridization, liquid-crystals, orientational, oxygen-plasma, Patterned, Plane, Polymer, Study, Surface Comments OffMore than a wire
Nanowires are the natural evolution of the connections in circuits when scaled down to nanometre sizes. On closer inspection, of course, the role of nanowires in developing new technologies is much more than just a current-bearing medium. By sizing the diameters of these objects down to the nanoscale, their properties become increasingly sensitive to factors such as the gas composition, temperature and incident light of their surrounding environment, as well as defects and variations in diameter. What becomes important in modern electronics innovations is not just what is connected, but how. Nanowires had already begun to attract the attention of researchers in the early 1990s as advances in imaging and measurement devices invited researchers to investigate the properties of these one-dimensional structures [1, 2]. This interest has sparked ingenious ways of fabricating nanowires such as the use of a DNA template. A collaboration of researchers at Louisiana Tech Universit…
Posted in Nanotechnology Tags: attention, developing-new, diameters, dna, louisiana-tech, Nanoscale, Natural, the-connections, the-nanoscale, these-objects, well-as-defects Comments OffSlowing the translocation of double-stranded DNA using a nanopore smaller than the double helix
It is now possible to slow and trap a single molecule of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), by stretching it using a nanopore, smaller in diameter than the double helix, in a solid-state membrane. By applying an electric force larger than the threshold for stretching, dsDNA can be impelled through the pore. Once a current blockade associated with a translocating molecule is detected, the electric field in the pore is switched in an interval less than the translocation time to a value below the threshold for stretching. According to molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, this leaves the dsDNA stretched in the pore constriction with the base-pairs tilted, while the B-form canonical structure is preserved outside the pore. In this configuration, the translocation velocity is substantially reduced from 1 bp/10 ns to ~ 1 bp/2 ms in the extreme, potentially facilitating high fidelity reads for sequencing, precise sorting, and high resolution (force) spectroscopy.
Posted in Nanotechnology Tags: configuration, dna, Electric, electric-force, extreme, high-fidelity, interval-less, now-possible, pore, precise-sorting, single-molecule, the-threshold, threshold, Translocation Comments OffSurface-enhanced localized surface plasmon resonance biosensing of avian influenza DNA hybridization using subwavelength metallic nanoarrays
We demonstrated enhanced localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensing based on subwavelength gold nanoarrays built on a thin gold film. Arrays of nanogratings (1D) and nanoholes (2D) with a period of 200 nm were fabricated by electron-beam lithography and used for the detection of avian influenza DNA hybridization. Experimental results showed that both nanoarrays provided significant sensitivity improvement and, especially, 1D nanogratings exhibited higher SPR signal amplification compared with 2D nanohole arrays. The sensitivity enhancement is associated with changes in surface-limited reaction area and strong interactions between bound molecules and localized plasmon fields. Our approach is expected to improve both the sensitivity and sensing resolution and can be applicable to label-free detection of DNA without amplification by polymerase chain reaction.
Posted in Nanotechnology Tags: avian-influenza, between-bound, Detection, dna, gold-nanoarrays, reaction-area, results-showed, sensitivity, surface-plasmon, the-sensitivity Comments OffSelf-Assembling Prestressed Tensegrity Structures Built With DNA Nanodevices
A team at Harvard has created DNA nanodevices that self-assemble and can be programmed to move and change shape on demand.
Posted in Nanotechnology Tags: architectural, been-the-focus, cells-control, dna, Microscale, mixed-together, same-principle, team-at-harvard, tension-bearers Comments OffLight Drives Nanomotor Rotation
. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley Labs and the University of California have made a new nanoscale motor that can drive a disc 4000 times bigger than itself, by volume. It is powered by the plasmonic effect of light interacting with matter.
Posted in Nanotechnology Tags: California, Disc, dna, geometry, gold-structures, Light, new-nanoscale, plasmonic, the-plasmonic, University, wavelength Comments OffLocal solid-state modification of nanopore surface charges
Over the last decade, nanopores have emerged as a new and interesting tool for the study of biological macromolecules like proteins and DNA. While biological pores, especially alpha-haemolysin, have been promising for the detection of DNA, their poor chemical stability limits their use. For this reason, researchers are trying to mimic their behaviour using more stable, solid-state nanopores.
Posted in Nanotechnology Tags: been-fabricated, behaviour, Detection, dna, most-successful, nanopore, over-the-last, Resolution, show-nanopores, silicon-oxide, Study, the-resolution, using-standard, Work Comments OffForesight’s student award-winners go on to great things
Foresight Research Analyst and Technical Editor James Lewis has tracked the careers of those receiving Foresight’s student award. Here are his findings on the careers of a few of these gifted young researchers: We at Foresight find it gratifying to track the subsequent careers of those who have won our nanotechnology-related prizes and awards, in this case the Foresight Distinguished Student Award, last made in 2007 to a Rice University graduate student, Fung-Suong Ou. Mr.
Posted in Nanotechnology Tags: Chemistry, Design, dna, foresight kudos, Health, health-sciences, Nanotechnology, Research, Technology, united-states, University, Work Comments Off