DNA origami, a technique of manipulating DNA strands into various shapes, holds great promise for the future of molecular electronics. Scientists are creating rudimentary shapes to show it can be done, with the ultimate goal of producing complex shapes for molecular electronics. The technique involves folding DNA strands into shapes resembling circuit boards, which could be connected to create super-tiny electrical processors. This is the first step in a process that is expected to include 3D shapes in the future.
An exciting new method of manipulating DNA could hold great promise for the future of molecular electronics. It’s a DNA origami, the brainchild of Caltech researcher Paul Rothemund. DNA origami is staggering in its possibilities, yet it employs the simplest techniques and one of the art’s most elegant practices.
Remember that DNA comes in the famous “double helix”, a pair of intertwining strands of molecular material. DNA is used by nearly every organism on the planet to make proteins via a special set of ‘instructions’. If we could somehow make those instructions work for us, then we could build on our own things that would otherwise be made by nature. DNA origami is the first step in this process.
DNA origami might sound a bit like the kind of cloning that is part of the ongoing public ethics debate, but it is in essence what Rothemund and others are doing. Instead of modeling whole animals or humans, however, these researchers are making much smaller products as they make a big contribution to the future of DNA research. Specifically, they’re bending DNA strands into rudimentary shapes like smiling faces and snowflakes, first and foremost, to show that it can be done. Of course, more complicated shapes have been created, including a rather impressive map of the Western Hemisphere, and the ultimate goal is to form ever more complex shapes to produce the desired end result, molecular electronics. DNA origami, meets electronic pathways.
DNA origami is so named because of the way DNA is manipulated. By molding DNA strands into various shapes, scientists are mirroring origami, the practice of folding paper into various shapes. Folding DNA into something resembling a circuit board may be in the relative future, as the two-dimensional shapes that Rothemund and others have already created are just the first steps in a process that is expected to include 3D shapes in the not too distant future. Scientists could then take those DNA origami circuit boards and connect super-tiny wires or tubes to them to create a super-tiny electrical processor. The latest extension of this could be a larger electrical processor produced by linking lots of smaller ones, on the same theory that the 2D smiling faces of today’s DNA origami are the forerunners of tomorrow’s 3D figures.
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