Biomod/2013/Komaba/Home

Home,Project,Design,Experiment,Supplementation,Team,Sponsors

DNA screw, a rotary molecular motor

Abstract

DNA screw

DNA-based molecular motor engineering is a sprouting field that is expected to have promising outcomes. Even so many approaches have been carried out, rotational movement seems to have been neglected. Our project’s goal is to realize such rotary motion in nanoscale. To make a concrete rotational motion, we develop a DNA Screw, a 3-part motor which combines 2 well-known DNA nanotechnologies: the DNA origami is used to create a cylinder and a ring, making the core of the motor. Then, the movement is generated by DNA walkers. The walkers are bound to the ring and run along the cylinder following a track set out spirally on the cylinder's side. Rings and cylinders are assembled by DNA-origami technology, which enables us to embed DNA Screws into other DNA structures easily. The rotational motion in the nanoscale world contributes to many applications, and the DNA Screw expands the possibilities of DNA engineering.