Engineers have found a new and unexpected use for the code of lifeas a commonplace building material that can be used to fashion precise 3D structures, ranging from miniature smiley faces to cubes.
Most people think of DNA as the master blueprint that is carried in every cell, spelling out the essential traits of organisms. DNA is the building block of life only in the metaphorical sense. But scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University saw in the material an unexploited versatility, if it were to be used as a real brick. They described Thursday in the journal Science an array of molecular Legos that could one day provide a useful scaffold for building tiny electronic circuits and drug-delivery devices.
To show just how much control they had over structures made of DNA, the team of researchers built a demonstration set of 100 figures. Those ranged from practical engineering feats, such as joining together two structures with a narrow connection, to the whimsicalthe alphabet, or a heart.
When Hendrik Dietz, who leads the Laboratory for Biomolecular Nanotechnology at Technische Universitt Mnchen in Germany, received a copy of the paper from a colleague at Harvard a few weeks ago, he was full of enthusiasm for the work. It represents a new level of control over building precisely tailored objects at the tiniest scales, he wrote in an e-mail. But Dietz said he also had an almost instantaneous emotional response.
The 3D thing is so awesome, he wrote to his colleague. I almost got tears in my eyes because of the joy. I love the Lego figures. When looking at this, one cannot help but submit to the power of DNA.
Peng Yin, a core faculty member of the Wyss Institute who led the research, said it was helpful for the researchers to think of the DNA as Lego bricks rather than as molecules. The code of DNA involves four lettersC, G, T, and Awhich abide by precise pairing rules: A matches up with T, and C with G. To build the structures, researchers started with short strands of DNA, each carrying eight-letter fragments that acted like the prongs on a Lego block. Each eight-letter fragment was like a Lego prong that would only fit one other predetermined Lego.
But unlike a kit that keeps kids busy for hours, these DNA structures required little assembly, once the structures had been designed, Yin said.
You just add some water and salt and increase the temperature to 90 degrees and let it cool down gradually over three daysthats it, Yin said. In one test tube, there are billions of copies of these individual objects, but they all look the same.
The work, he said, demonstrates that DNA, essential for life, can have other uses. It builds on earlier research, in which Yins team found it could stack DNA bricks on one another in two dimensions. And earlier this year, Yins colleague at Harvard, George Church, showed that it was possible to turn DNA into a more conventional storage material. He took the text of his 284-page book, Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves, translated its words into binary codewords became a string of 0s and 1s. Then, they translated that binary into the letters of DNA, with As and Cs corresponding to 0 and Gs and Ts indicating a 1. They then they created 55,000 short strands of DNA that, read together and properly decoded, amounted to a genetic copy of the book.
Church, who is collaborating with Yin, said the new work would be helpful in any application in which precision was important.
See the rest here:
Harvard scientists build tiny structures with DNA Legos
- Molecular Visualizations of DNA - August 27th, 2011 [August 27th, 2011]
- DNA Structure - August 27th, 2011 [August 27th, 2011]
- Time Is Money Presents: Dna vs. T-rex - August 27th, 2011 [August 27th, 2011]
- DNA Replication Process - August 27th, 2011 [August 27th, 2011]
- darwin deez - dna (official video) - August 27th, 2011 [August 27th, 2011]
- The Secret of Life -- Discovery of DNA Structure - August 27th, 2011 [August 27th, 2011]
- DNA - Blonde Red Head (from Downtown 81) - August 27th, 2011 [August 27th, 2011]
- How Big is Your Genome? Strange DNA - August 27th, 2011 [August 27th, 2011]
- DNA live - August 27th, 2011 [August 27th, 2011]
- Amanda Knox's father says DNA evidence 'critical' - September 11th, 2011 [September 11th, 2011]
- Judge: No more DNA testing in Amanda Knox appeal - September 11th, 2011 [September 11th, 2011]
- NASA | DNA Building Blocks Can Be Made in Space - September 11th, 2011 [September 11th, 2011]
- Starchild Skull- The SHOCKING DNA Results Are In....WATCH THIS! *HD* - September 11th, 2011 [September 11th, 2011]
- Svante Pääbo: DNA clues to our inner neanderthal - September 11th, 2011 [September 11th, 2011]
- CIA may have tried 'to trick DNA from Bin Laden' - September 11th, 2011 [September 11th, 2011]
- SMACK/ URL Presents DNA vs X-Factor - September 11th, 2011 [September 11th, 2011]
- Court denies re-test of DNA in Amanda Knox trial - September 11th, 2011 [September 11th, 2011]
- Chapter 10: Tenacious DNA - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- dna - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- Saul Williams - DNA - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- DNA--Not Moving - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- DNA Extraction Home Experiment - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- How to extract DNA from strawberries - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- frequency 528 Hz (DNA repair frequency ?) : NO MUSIC single tone - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- darwin deez - dna [director's cut] - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- DNA Replication Song - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- BioRap (DNA Replication and Protein Synthesis with a Beat) - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- DNA Transcription and Protein Assembly - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- 888 Gateway DNA Meditation - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- From DNA to Protein - September 23rd, 2011 [September 23rd, 2011]
- Blame it on the DNA - September 24th, 2011 [September 24th, 2011]
- DNA Replication - September 24th, 2011 [September 24th, 2011]
- Recombinant DNA ©2004 Demonstratives, Inc. - September 24th, 2011 [September 24th, 2011]
- A Flock of Seagulls - DNA - September 24th, 2011 [September 24th, 2011]
- DNA - Detached (from Downtown 81) - September 24th, 2011 [September 24th, 2011]
- Aliens, UFOs, DNA - September 25th, 2011 [September 25th, 2011]
- DNA Speaks On Recent Battles And X-Factor - September 25th, 2011 [September 25th, 2011]
- The DNA of the World's Most Innovative Companies - September 25th, 2011 [September 25th, 2011]
- Anunnaki Human DNA 1 - September 25th, 2011 [September 25th, 2011]
- Host DNA Dicing - Green Phat Bet - 11bill+ Total - - September 25th, 2011 [September 25th, 2011]
- Judge Alex - DNA Test - September 25th, 2011 [September 25th, 2011]
- Prosecution downplays DNA in Knox appeal - September 26th, 2011 [September 26th, 2011]
- NASA officially announces alien DNA found in meteorites. - September 26th, 2011 [September 26th, 2011]
- Antimatter Found, Artificial DNA ,Social Unrest - September 26th, 2011 [September 26th, 2011]
- Chrono Khalid - DNA activation 2.0 - September 26th, 2011 [September 26th, 2011]
- 'Baby' Alien found by farmer in Mexico - DNA tests and scans baffles scientists - September 26th, 2011 [September 26th, 2011]
- DNA : The Secret Of Life (PBS) - September 26th, 2011 [September 26th, 2011]
- DNA - Size - September 27th, 2011 [September 27th, 2011]
- Starchild Skull 2010 DNA Result - September 28th, 2011 [September 28th, 2011]
- Cowboy BeBop- Ask DNA - September 28th, 2011 [September 28th, 2011]
- Symphony of Science -- DNA and Life - September 30th, 2011 [September 30th, 2011]
- Molecular Biology Visualization of DNA - October 2nd, 2011 [October 2nd, 2011]
- Same Dna Livin Life Ep 8 - October 4th, 2011 [October 4th, 2011]
- Danny Brown - DNA - October 4th, 2011 [October 4th, 2011]
- Rockmond Dunbar Traces His DNA To Nigeria - October 5th, 2011 [October 5th, 2011]
- TEDxFortGreeneSalon - Melvin Gibbs - The DNA Project - October 5th, 2011 [October 5th, 2011]
- Building a tiny "DNA brain" (Part I: design) - October 5th, 2011 [October 5th, 2011]
- DNA "Post-Summer Madness 2011" Interview Part 1 [EME] - October 5th, 2011 [October 5th, 2011]
- Proof that Evolution is True/Real/Fact: Mutations, DNA, Natural Selection - October 9th, 2011 [October 9th, 2011]
- DA John Bradley once excluded DNA testing - October 9th, 2011 [October 9th, 2011]
- Benbassat Says Apple's `DNA' Will Continue After Jobs - October 10th, 2011 [October 10th, 2011]
- BRO BOBBY HEMMITT; DNA TRANSFORMATION part 1 - October 10th, 2011 [October 10th, 2011]
- DNA - 2 Ounces And A Dream (Instrumental) - October 10th, 2011 [October 10th, 2011]
- The Truth About Italian DNA - October 10th, 2011 [October 10th, 2011]
- DNA - Ludovico Einaudi - October 13th, 2011 [October 13th, 2011]
- DNA - FAIR FIGHT (THE SNITCH) PROD BY : BLESSED BY THE BEATS - Video - October 13th, 2011 [October 13th, 2011]
- DNA REPAIR - Video - October 13th, 2011 [October 13th, 2011]
- DNA MUTATION - Video - October 14th, 2011 [October 14th, 2011]
- Spiritual DNA - Video - October 14th, 2011 [October 14th, 2011]
- DNA Structure - Video - October 14th, 2011 [October 14th, 2011]
- DNA - Video - October 14th, 2011 [October 14th, 2011]
- DNA Replication - Video - October 14th, 2011 [October 14th, 2011]
- THE DNA SONG - Video - October 14th, 2011 [October 14th, 2011]
- That Spells DNA by Jonathan Coulton - Video - October 15th, 2011 [October 15th, 2011]
- DNA Activation Power - 2012 Ascension - Video - October 15th, 2011 [October 15th, 2011]
- Journey Inside The Cell - Video - October 15th, 2011 [October 15th, 2011]
- DNA - ROMAN NUMERALS (MUSIC VIDEO) - Video - October 15th, 2011 [October 15th, 2011]
- DNA - Blonde Red Head - Video - October 16th, 2011 [October 16th, 2011]
- [HD] The Kills - DNA (Live in Paris @ Bataclan, April 6th, 2011) - Video - October 17th, 2011 [October 17th, 2011]
- Blackfield - DNA - Video - October 22nd, 2011 [October 22nd, 2011]