molecular manipulator tagged posts

2 new Nanoscale Machines developed with moving parts, with DNA as Programmable, Self-Assembling Construction material

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Rotor mechanism assembled from 3-D DNA components. Dietz Lab/TUM

In the 1st machine, a rotor mechanism was formed from interlocking 3D DNA components. Another has a hinged molecular manipulator, also made from DNA. These are just the latest steps in a campaign to transform so-called “DNA origami” into an industrially useful, commercially viable technology.

Inspired by nature’s nanomachines – such as the enzyme ATP synthase and the motor-driven flagella of bacteria – physicists in Prof. Hendrik Dietz’s lab at TUM keep expanding their own design and construction repertoire. They have systematically developed rules and procedures for creating self-assembled DNA origami structures with ever greater flexibility and control...

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