DNA nanorobot can pick up molecules

Los Angeles: Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have developed a nanorobot using a single DNA strand that can pick up certain molecules and drop them off in designated locations, paving the way for synthesising novel therapeutic chemicals and drug delivery systems.

“Just like electromechanical robots are sent off to faraway places, like Mars, we would like to send molecular robots to minuscule places where humans can’t go, such as the bloodstream,” said Lulu Qian, assistant professor at California Institute of Technology in the US.

“Our goal was to design and build a molecular robot that could perform a sophisticated nanomechanical task: cargo sorting,” said Qian.

The researchers constructed three basic building blocks that could be used to assemble a DNA

The development paves the way for synthesising novel therapeutic chemicals and drug delivery systems

robot: a “leg” with two “feet” for walking, an “arm” and “hand” for picking up cargo, and a segment that can recognise a specific drop-off point and signal to the hand to release its cargo.

Each of these components is made of just a few nucleotides within a single strand of DNA.

In principle, these modular building blocks could be assembled in many different ways to complete different tasks — a DNA robot with several hands and arms, for example, could be used to carry multiple molecules simultaneously.

The researchers built a robot that could explore a molecular surface, pick up two different molecules — a fluorescent yellow dye and a fluorescent pink dye — and then distribute them to two distinct regions on the surface.

Using fluorescent molecules enabled the researchers to see if the molecules ended up in their intended locations.

The robot successfully sorted six scattered molecules, three pink and three yellow, into their correct places in 24 hours.