SCIENTIFIC NEW: Molecular nanotechnology and sensors

 Nanotechnology is the manipulation of materials at a molecular scale. Many scientists use artificial DNA strands to achieve it.

Technology Review reports that researchers at the University of Dortmund have discovered how to make paste and separate DNA nanoparticles as gold. This method could be applied to sensors that detect substances and biological activities in the laboratory and in the human body. It also could be applied to programmable materials whose properties can be changed by adding a piece of DNA.

DNA consists of four chemical bases - adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine - attached to a sugar-phosphate backbone. The DNA strands come together when the base sequences mate - adenine with thymine and cytosine with guanine. With the new scientific breakthrough developed by the German team, you may get short DNA strands to form artificial structures, and can then be manipulated to make them stick to other materials and then you can organize these other materials within a structure.

In this research, the scientists used two sequences of single strands of DNA that are attached to a gold nanoparticle and a third strand with three sections. The first two sections of the third strand paired with each of the strands of nanoparticles, gluing them to gold nanoparticles bearing are positioned nearby. Nanoparticles can be separated using a third type of DNA strand as the strand is attached DNA. The first strand is attached to the third section, which is free of DNA strand adhesive strip until the entire strand is despegaue.