Bringing Macroscale design principles to DNA nanomachines
Foresight Update 28.02—February 9, 2015
ISSN 1078-9731
Nanotech News
Discuss these news stories at http://foresight.org/nanodot.
In this issue:
Last month we reported research aimed at improving targeted drug delivery to specific types of cells by endowing nanorobots with the ability to compute. A recent report indicates it might be possible to achieve a subset of those goals—improving drug delivery by only having drug release happen inside cells that satisfy two target conditions—simply by mixing nanoparticles composed of polymers with opposite steric configurations. …
If nanotechnologists were to vote on their favorite atom, the winner would, I would guess, be carbon. Not only do diamond-like structures figure prominently in theoretical proposals for high throughput atomically precise manufacturing, not only does carbon bind in a wondrous variety of ways with itself and other atoms to form the molecules that underlie life and present day biomimetic nanotechnology, but a variety of allotropes of carbon exhibit a range of interesting properties that make possible a number of current day nanotechnologies. Now graphite, diamond, fullerenes, graphene, carbon nanotubes, glassy carbon, and carbon nanofoam are joined by another allotrope—penta-graphene. …
Sometimes very simple modifications of nanoscale structure can have large practical implications. Last month we noted the unexpected discovery of piezoelectricity in a molecular monolayer. The research noted today achieved a large increase in voltage output of a nanostructure several hundred nanometers thick (a vertically integrated nanogenerator, or VING) through the insertion of an insulating layer. …
Current nanotechnology research spans the range from steps toward molecular machine systems and nanorobots to simple nanoscale materials modifications that can have immediate and substantial practical value, such as this example that changes the electrical charge and surface energy of a metal surface. …
Our most recent post cited research that demonstrated programmed complex motions in simple mechanisms fabricated using scaffolded DNA origami. This achievement represents initial success in what appears to be a systematic program to implement macroscale engineering design principles in molecular machinery made possible by structural DNA Nanotechnology. This approach was introduced in a 2013 paper published in ACS Nano implementing a collaboration between a DNA nanotechnology research group and a mechanical engineering and kinematics design innovation and simulation research group. …
Progress in structural DNA nanotechnology seems to be accelerating. For example, a few weeks ago we cited work in which swarms of DNA nanorobots executed complex tasks in living animals. For the most part, this progress has centered on static structures, or on structures embodying small movements along loosely constrained paths. Now a team of researchers is beginning to use DNA nanotechnology to fabricate parts for machine designs based on the way macroscopic machines work by implementing well-defined motions. …
—Nanodot posts by James Lewis
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