New DNA-based nanowires may power gen-next computers
Scientists have successfully created
gold-plated nanowires assembled from single DNA strands that can conduct
current, an advance that may pave the way for tiny electonic devices made from
genetic material.
Currently the circumference of the
smallest transistors are tinier than the AIDS virus. The industry has shrunk
the central elements of their computer chips to fourteen nanometers in the last
sixty years.
Conventional methods, however, are
hitting physical boundaries. Researchers around the world are looking for
alternatives. One method could be the self-organisation of complex components
from molecules and atoms.
Researchers at the Helmholtz- Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and Paderborn University in Germany combined a long single strand of genetic material with shorter DNA segments through the base pairs to form a stable double strand.
Using this method, the structures independently take on the desired form.
“Our measurements have shown that an electrical current is conducted through these tiny wires,” said Artur Erbe from HZDR’s Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research.
“With the help of this approach, which resembles the Japanese paper folding technique origami and is therefore referred to as DNA-origami, we can create tiny patterns,” said Erbe.
Researchers at the Helmholtz- Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and Paderborn University in Germany combined a long single strand of genetic material with shorter DNA segments through the base pairs to form a stable double strand.
Using this method, the structures independently take on the desired form.
“Our measurements have shown that an electrical current is conducted through these tiny wires,” said Artur Erbe from HZDR’s Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research.
“With the help of this approach, which resembles the Japanese paper folding technique origami and is therefore referred to as DNA-origami, we can create tiny patterns,” said Erbe.
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