X-Message-Number: 12785
From: "George Smith" <>
References: <>
Subject: Germans building objects from DNA?
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 21:59:58 -0800

Source: BBC Online at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_521000/521662.stm

BBC News / Sci Tech / The DNA Construction Set / 15 November 1999

German scientists have used DNA molecules like "Velcro" to stick together
microscopically tiny objects.

So far, cylinders, squares, and tetrahedra have been constructed and the
researchers hope that these will act as building blocks for tiny machines in
the future.

The work, led by Gunter von Kiedrowski, at the Ruhr University, Bochum,
exploits the DNA spiral's unerring ability to match itself up to a partner.

Mix and match

In cell nuclei, the DNA double helix is made of two separate strands bound
to each other. The strands are a long series of the four chemical "symbols"
which are used to encode life's most basic information.

The two strands exactly match one another meaning that, if they were
separated in a complex chemical mixture, they are still able to find each
other easily.

Professor von Kiedrowski's team used the DNA spiral's ability to recognise
another spiral to complete a set of microscopic building instructions.

Gold spheres

They synthesised and separated DNA double helixes and then attached the
single strands to building materials, such as gold spheres. Then, in
solution, the DNA strands found their partners and bound together the
components they carried.

They believe the selectivity provided by the DNA pairing will allow complex
objects to be assembled. They even speculate such objects could multiply
themselves by bio-chemical methods and might be able to optimise their
operation through "artificial" evolution.

The work is published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International
Edition.

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12785