报告题目：Electrically Actuated DNA Robot Arms

报 告 人：Enzo Kopperger（ the Technical University of Munich）

报告时间：2018年10月16日（星期二）上午 10：30

报告地点：嘉定园区102楼234室

Abstract:

The development of increasingly advanced molecular robotic systems that perform mechanical tasks or process information on the nanoscale promises to open a vast variety of opportunities. Molecular self-assembly of DNA molecules, used for the bottom-up creation of complex molecular constructs, has been shown to hold large potential to push towards a realization of this vision. Starting out from simple mechanical mechanisms, increasingly intricate systems of molecular machinery have been demonstrated over the past decades. However, the established driving mechanisms, such as hybridization reactions and enzymatic reactions struggle with low operation yield, slow speed and the lacking ability to exert appreciable forces against loading.

As an alternative strategy, we demonstrate the use of electric fields to remote control DNA based structures, that resemble nanoscale robotic arms. These structures, in the form of a square base plate with an integrated arm, were created with the DNA origami technique. A flexible connection between base plate and arm allows rotation of the arm with respect to the specifically addressable base plate. Utilizing the high intrinsic charge of our DNA nanoconstruct we demonstrated the use of electrical fields to actively control the arm’s angle relative to the base plate. Actuation of the robot arm only requires milliseconds, which is many orders of magnitude faster than established methods for the operation of synthetic DNA nanomachines. Application of this method to fulfill basic tasks such as latching to designed interaction sites on the base plate as well as arm-mediated switching of of FRET signals and plasmonic interactions will be discussed along with future application opportunities.