Nano-Legos Built From DNA

March 13, 2008 -- Best known as the blueprint for life, DNA is also a marvel of architecture that can be used to build 3-D structures measured in billionths of a foot, according to a study released Wednesday.

A team of scientists in the United States has shown in experiments how to construct complex, spherical objects with tiny strings of DNA that assemble by themselves.

DNA nanotechnology uses the building blocks of living organisms not as a repository for biological data, but as a structural material instead.

These molecular-scale biomaterials hold tremendous promise in fields ranging from robotics to electronics to computation, scientists say.

One of the ultimate goals is the self-assembling biochips for nano-computers, according to New York University chemist Nadrian Seeman, a leading expert on on DNA-based technology.

Whether synthetic or natural, DNA strands often display properties that cannot be duplicated in conventional organic or inorganic chemistry.

Such biomaterials have the added advantage of being a renewable resource and, by definition, biodegradable.

The DNA double helix structure consists of two intertwined spirals of sugar and phosphate molecules linked by pairs of nucleotides, the basic building blocks of all life.