Custom-engineered DNA Structures
NPR : Fun with DNA
Cool.
It's not exactly neurotechnology, but custom-engineered nanoscale structures made from DNA, like those featured below, could be used as components in nanoscale machines that facilitate neural interfacing.
An impressive result nonetheless. How does it work? If my memory of molecular biology serves me correctly, certain sequences of DNA are predisposed to bond with other segments through electrostatic attraction of special embedded proteins. After deciding on a desired shape, you can take a single long piece of DNA and splice in these sequences so that it'll fold into the shape you want. A computer program helps calculate where these sequences will need to go, which may be an NP-complete problem in general.
Researcher: Paul Rothemund
Institution: Caltech
Cool.
It's not exactly neurotechnology, but custom-engineered nanoscale structures made from DNA, like those featured below, could be used as components in nanoscale machines that facilitate neural interfacing.
An impressive result nonetheless. How does it work? If my memory of molecular biology serves me correctly, certain sequences of DNA are predisposed to bond with other segments through electrostatic attraction of special embedded proteins. After deciding on a desired shape, you can take a single long piece of DNA and splice in these sequences so that it'll fold into the shape you want. A computer program helps calculate where these sequences will need to go, which may be an NP-complete problem in general.
Researcher: Paul Rothemund
Institution: Caltech
posted by Anand at
1:41 PM
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