Real-time magnetic actuation of DNA nanodevices

Recent advances in biomolecular nanotechnology, in particular DNA nanotechnology, have led to molecular devices with precisely designed motion, mechanical properties, and triggered conformational changes. This talk will report an advancement in this field that opens the door to manipulate molecules and nanomaterials with programmed or user-driven magnetic control in real-time.
The magnetic approach to control DNA nano devices that has been developed allow direct manipulation over the device conformation in real-time up to frequencies of several Hertz with tunable applied forces.[1] The technique relies on coupling the motion of micron-sized magnetic beads, which can be easily manipulated using a low-cost platform, to the nanoscale DNA devices via stiff lever arms. The mechanical lever arm has a high aspect ratio, where its cross-sectional dimensions are on the scale of the nanomachines (~25 nm), but the length is on the scale of the actuator (~ 1 µm). While actuation of nano-hinges and nano-rotors is demonstrated, the robust assembly methods can be translated to a variety of molecular devices.
These results thus establish many key advances over several existing methods to actuate molecular devices including sub-second temporal control, the ability to actuate into many different conformations, and capbility to manipulate devices with tunable forces.
[1] S. Lauback et al. Nature Communications 9, 1446 (2018).