Scientists have devised a way to make the DNA to bend and twist in a variety of new forms, which someday may be used in tiny instruments that serve to deliver drugs from inside the body, creating tissue and studying individual proteins.
The results of this study will give scientists a way to create three-dimensional nanoscale objects with continuous curvature, which so far is one of the constraints it has faced this technology.
The study, which publishes the journal Science, was conducted by a team of scientists from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany) and Harvard Medical School (USA).
One of the researchers, Hendrik Dietz, explained in the article how to create nanoscale shapes curves continuously, so they got to design DNA helix bundles arranged in a honeycomb lattice.
In some of the propellers were inserted extra base pairs of DNA while others contained deletions of DNA, a situation that creates a series of tensions that help you to join nanoscale formations.
Using this method, the researchers could control the direction and degree of torque and even allow the molecules fold to form very sharp angles.
The researchers combined several curved elements achieved in this way to create complex shapes, which can develop from DNA, a new “toolbox” for the nano-engineering.
The aim of the experiment was to discover if DNA could be programmed to be united in a curve or twists “as” with a width of only a few nanometers, said Dietz, the Technische Universitaet Muenchen.
Dr. Shawn Douglas, Harvard University, said they now can build “a series of nanoscale three-dimensional parts, such as gears, bent tubes or capsules that could unite to create more complex medical instruments and functional.
