Credit: K. Dill/NIST
Trapped in a microscopic cage made of strands of DNA, molecules of a life-saving drug course through the bloodstream of a cancer patient. Only when receptors on the strands sense they’ve arrived at the right location—cancer cells overproducing a particular protein or exhibiting other abnormal behavior—does the cage pop open, delivering the anti-cancer drug exactly where it’s needed and leaving the patient’s healthy cells unscathed.
That’s an example of how nucleic acid nanotechnology (NAN) on its own—using solely the physical and chemical properties of the nucleic acids DNA and RNA rather than the genetic code they carry—are revolutionizing medicine.
But what if the unique properties of DNA and RNA could be combined with the myriad advantages of semiconductor technology? For instance, researchers are developing an artificial nose by attaching arrays of miniature DNA molecular sensors – each one customized to sense a different molecule – to silicon chips. This bio-electronic sensor will have the capability to “sniff out” thousands of different chemicals in the body or the environment.
In an article published online Oct. 21 in Nanoscale, NIST researchers J. Alexander Liddle and Jacob Majikes reviewed the many facets of NAN and concluded that the technology holds the most promise for bridging the world of biology and semiconductors.
Some researchers and funding agencies, they noted, expected that NAN might supplant many aspects of semiconductor fabrication and could rival existing technologies for uses such as archival memory. Some scientists have suggested that the strands could efficiently self-assemble to build integrated circuits.
However, these endeavors are simply not economically viable, Majikes and Liddle asserted. Advances in the semiconductor industry over the past two decades have en ..
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