Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5
Biomolecular Architecture for Nanotechnology
Abstract This chapter reviews the design principles of biomolecular architecture
with applications in nanotechnology and presents examples of zero-, one-, two-, and
three-dimensional patterns of inorganic materials assembled on biological scaffolds.
The use of nanoscale inorganic scaffolds for biomolecules is briefly discussed.
Electronic nanoscale components separated by nanosized distances, which even-
tually lead to faster computation, require new technologies. One possible solution
to the new generation of nanotechnologies involves the use of biological molecules,
and in particular DNA, as scaffolds for electronic circuits. The advantages of
DNA scaffolds are the self-assembly process and the specificity of A-T and G-C
hydrogen-bonding interactions, as well as our present ability to synthesize and
amplify any desired DNA sequence. In addition, the nanostructures constructed
from DNA scaffolds are physicochemically stable, which means that they can
be stored and processed under environmental conditions that do not need to be
especially restrictive to avoid decomposition. The processing of DNA material can
be performed with atomic precision by highly specific enzymes.
Because of the relevance of DNA architecture to nanotechnology, many reviews
exist on this subject (see, e.g., Seeman 1998 ; Feldkamp and Niemeyer 2006 ;
Jaeger and Chworos 2006 ; Lin et al. 2009 ). We only focus here on specific
examples of DNA-based fabrication of inorganic nanoparticle arrays or devices
with applications in nanotechnology [see also ( Li et al. 2009 ) for a recent review].
In most cases, nanotechnology-related scaffolding relies on the possibility of
attaching chemical groups at certain positions, on which properly functionalized
inorganic molecules bind in a subsequent process. DNA-based nanotechnology is
a bottom-up self-assembly approach that follows a different strategy compared to
inorganic self-assembly: nonequilibrium processes direct the assembly in biological
structures, whereas equilibrium-regulated processes are commonly employed in
artificial inorganic structures.
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