Engineers build DNA ‘nanotowers’ with enzyme tools

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This work is advancing the DNA-Protein-enzyme pathway to molecular manufacturing. It is a process that is advancing toward scalable industrialized processes.

Engineers build DNA ‘nanotowers’ with enzyme tools Duke engineers have added a new construction tool to their bio-nanofabrication toolbox. Using an enzyme called TdTase, engineers can vertically extend short DNA chains attached to nanometer-sized gold plates. This advance adds new capability to the field of bio-nanomanufacturing. Last year, Chilkoti and his team demonstrated an enzyme-driven process to “carve” nanoscale troughs into a field of DNA strands. By combining this technique with the new method of adding vertical length to the DNA strands, they can now create surfaces with three-dimensional topography.

The team starts with a forest of short DNA strands that cover nanoscale patches of gold, lithographed onto a silicon substrate. The researchers then submerge the substrate in a solution that contains the TdTase (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase) enzyme, a cobalt catalyst and the molecular building blocks, called nucleotides, of DNA chains.

Over an hour, the TdTase enzyme grabs the free-floating nucleotides and builds nanoscale “towers” above the surface by extending each DNA strand, increasing its height a hundredfold. In addition, the process works at room temperature in an incubator that maintains humidity, Chilkoti said.

Chilkoti said the next step towards bio-nanofabrication is to create a little crane to pick up, move and place biological molecules in precise locations on three-dimensional DNA surfaces.

“When we can place molecules in the right configuration, then we can get them to function. At that point, we can design and create biological machines that accomplish something,” he said

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