Nanowires Made From DNA Strands To Power e-Devices

Scientists have successfully created gold plated nanowires assembled from DNA strands that can conduct current, an advance that may pave the way for tiny electronic devices made from genetic material. Currently, the circumference of the smallest transistors is tinier than the AIDS virus. The industry has shrunk the central elements of their computer chips to 14 nanometers in the last 60 years. Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf (HZDR) and Paderborn University in Germany combined a long single strand of genetic material with shorter DNA segments through the base pairs to form a stable double strand. Using this method, the structures independently take on the desired form. Genetic matter doesn’t conduct a current particularly well. Researchers have therefore placed gold-plated nanoparticles on the DNA wires using chemical bonds. With the help of this approach, which resembles the Japanese paper folding technique origami and is therefore referred to as DNA origami, researchers can create tiny patterns. Extremely small circuits made of molecules and atoms are also conceivable here. This strategy, which scientists call the “bottom-up” method, aims to turn conventional production of electronic components on its head.