DNA construction kit for nanoengines

May 3, 2010

There is fresh buzz in nanomechanics. Scientists at the University of Bonn have succeeded for the first time in making, out of DNA double stands, an interlocked molecule (rotaxane) with freely moveable components. As the researchers wrote in the latest edition of the science journal Nature Nanotechnology (“A double-stranded DNA rotaxane”), this opens up exciting possibilities for nanorobotics and synthetic biology. (Nanowerk)