Look Who it Was Random video

Sorting Molecules with DNA Robots | QPT

1,418 views · Published 17 September 2017 · 2:57 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Rajamanickam Antonimuthu · 2017 · Science & Technology

Watch on YouTube

A DNA nanorobot is programmed to pick up and sort molecules into predefined region

Imagine a robot that could help you tidy your home: roving about, sorting stray socks into the laundry and dirty dishes into the dishwasher. While such a practical helper may still be the stuff of science fiction, Caltech scientists have developed an autonomous molecular machine that can perform similar tasks—at the nanoscale. This "robot," made of a single strand of DNA, can autonomously "walk" around a surface, pick up certain molecules and drop them off in designated locations.

Just like electromechanical robots are sent off to faraway places, like Mars, the researchers would like to send molecular robots to minuscule places where humans can't go, such as the bloodstream, Their goal was to design and build a molecular robot that could perform a sophisticated nanomechanical task: cargo sorting.


The researchers constructed three basic building blocks that could be used to assemble a DNA robot: a "leg" with two "feet" for walking, an "arm" and "hand" for picking up cargo, and a segment that can recognize 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.  For example, a DNA robot with several hands and arms,  could be used to carry multiple molecules simultaneously.

In the work described in the Science paper, the research Team 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. Adding more robots to the surface shortened the time it took to complete the task.

Though they demonstrated a robot for this specific task, the same system design can be generalized to work with dozens of types of cargos at any arbitrary initial location on the surface. One could also have multiple robots performing diverse sorting tasks in parallel.

The DNA robot could be used for synthesizing a therapeutic chemical from its constituent parts in an artificial molecular factory,  and delivering a drug only when a specific signal is given in bloodstreams or cells, or sorting molecular components in trash for recycling

News Source: http://www.caltech.edu/news/sorting-molecules-dna-robots-79640b

More from this channel