According to the official website of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ningbo Institute of Materials Science and Technology has made progress in designing and manufacturing three-dimensional DNA nanorobots capable of self-replication.It is understood that in modern manufacturing, industrial robots have become a key component because they can complete high-precision automated operations. As an innovative manufacturing platform, nanoscale industrial robots have great application potential in processing and producing nanomaterials.
However, creating such nanorobots faces technical challenges. Previously, DNA nanotechnology proposed by scientists provided a new method for precise and controllable self-assembly of various nanomaterials with a high precision of 0.3 nanometers.
This technology shows application prospects in biochips, biocomputers, nucleic acid drugs and other fields. Currently, DNA nanotechnology shows potential in creating nanorobots.
In this research, the Ningbo Materials team innovatively used DNA nanotechnology toCombining the foldable scaffold structure and multiple response control methods, a new three-dimensional DNA industrial nanorobot was successfully developed. These robots are capable of automating repetitive tasks at the nanometer scale and can create chiral nanomaterials with specific structures with high precision.
The nanorobots, which are approximately 100 nanometers in size, use temperature control and ultraviolet (UV) light to manipulate and align nanometer-sized parts., then precisely weld the nanoparts together to create the required nanostructure, and reset after completion for the next operation.
This method allows these nanorobots to create chiral nanoproducts with optical properties using ordinary parts. In addition, these nanorobots can increase flexibility in the manufacturing process through "controlled folding" technology.
This technology enables robots to complete multi-cycle self-replication of three-dimensional structures, which is crucial for achieving large-scale production of nanomaterials.
In the future, these DNA industrial nanorobots are expected to use advanced technologies such as nucleic acid aptamers to accurately capture, manipulate and position biological materials such as proteins and phospholipid membranes, thereby playing an important role in the field of drug delivery, especially in the targeted delivery of nucleic acid or protein drugs.