selfassembling

Recent research challenges the conventional division between ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ molecules within cells, showing that structural ‘muscle’ molecules can also process information and make decisions through nucleation. This discovery, highlighting a dual role for these molecules, could lead to more efficient cellular processes and has broad implications for understanding computation in biological systems. Credit: Olivier Wyatt, HEADQUARTER, 2023 https://headquarter.paris/We tend to separate the brain and muscle – the…

Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, have observed nanoparticles self-assembling into solid materials for the first time, offering valuable insights for the design of new materials, such as thin films for electronics. The captivating videos show particles cascading, tumbling, and sliding into place, ultimately forming a crystal’s characteristic stacked layers. The groundbreaking study is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Credit: Erik Luijten and Qian…

Bacteria are fast developing resistance to our best antibiotics, potentially ushering in a new “dark age of medicine” where currently treatable infections become lethal once again. Now, scientists at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed self-assembling “nanonets” that can trap and kill bacteria.The emerging superbug problem is a microcosm of evolution. Essentially, environmental pressures – such as the killing power of antibiotics – leave behind only the bacteria that have a natural resistance to the…

Researchers have developed a new open-source program that can convert drawings or digital models into nanoscale sculptures made of DNA. In tests, the system nailed rounded objects like vases and bowls.DNA is an incredibly versatile molecule. Not only can it encode the data to make a blueprint of any living creature, from bacteria to humans to whales, but it can fold and scrunch and bend tightly to fit into cells. That flexibility could also make DNA a useful nanoscale construction material, and in recent decades…

By deploying a newly-developed drug against a key energy source of cancer cells, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have developed a new way of eliminating them in mere hours. The technique relies on self-assembling molecules that take on a potent form in the cellular environment, and in doing so effectively starve the cancerous cells of the oxygen they need to thrive.The technology at the heart of this research takes aim at one of the key metabolic functions of cells in all living things called…

In a first, researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have successfully developed a molecular electric motor made of genetic material that can convert electric energy into kinetic energy. The team used the DNA origami method to create the nanomotors which can self-assemble and whose motion can be controlled. With the development of the nanomotor, researchers have tried to replicate the natural molecular motors in our body like ATP synthase that performs different functions. The DNA origami method used to…

Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed the world’s first electric nanomotors made of DNA. The self-assembling structures can be activated by an electric charge to spin a ratcheting rotor arm.The tiny motor was made using a technique called DNA origami. Like its namesake papercraft, the method involves intricately folding strands of DNA into three-dimensional shapes, with past examples including virus traps, immune-evading drug delivery systems, and even microscopic Van Gogh replicas. These…