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Nanoscale robots take up working speed

Nanoscale robots take up working speed

Technology News |
By Christoph Hammerschmidt



The fact that these molecular machines have not been used on a large scale for a long time is due to the fact that they have only been working very slowly so far. By adding enzymes, DNA strands or using light, the building blocks are activated and can carry out certain tasks, such as the uptake and transport of molecules.

Conventional nano-robots, however, take minutes, sometimes hours to perform such actions. Efficient molecular assembly line work can hardly be realized with these methods.  A different drive technology is required for the implementation of nanotechnology production lines. Friedrich Simmel, a scientist at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), came up with the idea of using the interaction of electrical fields with DNA structures instead of biochemical switches.

The principle behind the new drive technology is simple: DNA molecules contain negative charges. The biomolecules can therefore be moved by applying electric fields. Theoretically, it is possible to control nano-robots from DNA using current pulses.

In order to find out whether and how fast the robotic arms align themselves parallel to an electric field, the researchers fixed nano robotic arms on a glass carrier and placed them in a specially developed specimen holder with electrical contacts.

Each of the miniature machines manufactured by Simmel’s colleague Enzo Kopperger as part of the project consists of a rigid base plate of 55 by 55 nm on which, connected by a flexible joint of unpaired bases, a 400 nm long arm is mounted. The design ensures that the arm can rotate horizontally as desired.

In cooperation with fluorescence specialists led by Professor Don Lamb from the Ludwig Maximilian University LMU, the researchers marked the tips of the robotic arms with dye molecules. They followed their movements with a fluorescence microscope. Under computer control they changed the direction of the electric field. In this way, the researchers were able to adjust the orientation of the arms as desired and preset movement processes. “The experiment has shown that molecular machines move electrically and can therefore be driven,” said Simmel. “Thanks to the electronic control system, we can perform movements in millisecond intervals and are thus 100,000 times faster than previous biochemical drives.”

The new control technology is not only suitable for moving dyes or nanoparticles back and forth. The arms of the miniature robots can also exert forces on molecules. Simmel emphasizes that this interaction can be used for diagnostics and pharmaceutical development, for example: “Nano robots are small and inexpensive. Millions of them could work simultaneously to search for certain substances in a sample or to synthesize complicated molecules step by step, as on the assembly line.”

A detailed report on the project was published in the magazine Science.

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