ScienceDaily (May 12, 2010) — In a single day, a solitary grad student at a lab bench can produce more simple logic circuits than the world's entire output of silicon chips in a month.
This is a closeup of a waffle. (Credit: Chris Dwyer)
In his latest set of experiments, Chris Dwyer, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, demonstrated that by simply mixing customized snippets of DNA and other molecules, he could create literally billions of identical, tiny, waffle-looking structures.
Dwyer has shown that these nanostructures will efficiently self-assemble, and when different light-sensitive molecules are added to the mixture, the waffles exhibit unique and "programmable" properties that can be readily tapped. Using light to excite these molecules, known as chromophores, he can create simple logic gates, or switches.
These nanostructures can then be used as the building blocks for a variety of applications, ranging from the biomedical to the computational.
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Read more here/Leia mais aqui: Science Daily
Small
Volume 6 Issue 7, Page NA
Published Online: 26 Mar 2010
Copyright © 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Molecular logic gates: Encoded Multichromophore Response for Simultaneous Label-Free Detection
Small 7/2010
Constantin Pistol 1, Vincent Mao 1, Viresh Thusu 1, Alvin R. Lebeck 2, Chris Dwyer 1 *
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Duke University 130 Hudson Hall Durham, NC 27708 (USA)
2Department of Computer Science Duke University Box 90921, Durham, NC 27708 (USA)
email: Chris Dwyer (dwyer@ece.duke.edu)
*Correspondence to Chris Dwyer, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Duke University 130 Hudson Hall Durham, NC 27708 (USA).
ABSTRACT
The cover image depicts a DNA nanostructure on which collections of attached chromophores function as optical logic gates driving biomolecular sensors. In this process, molecular analytes disrupt the resonance energy transfer between chromophores and can thereby be uniquely identified by a binary combination of input wavelengths while observing a single output wavelength. This encoding technique scales the number of uniquely identifiable species beyond what simple wavelength division multiplexing can achieve, for example, with molecular beacons, given a fixed number of spectrally unique chromophores. Such nanostructures may enable the integration of more sophisticated computational devices based on resonance energy transfer logic for drug delivery, diagnostics, and biosensing. For more information, please read the Full Paper Encoded Multichromophore Response for Simultaneous Label-Free Detection by Chris Dwyer et al., beginning on page 843.
Constantin Pistol 1, Vincent Mao 1, Viresh Thusu 1, Alvin R. Lebeck 2, Chris Dwyer 1 *
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Duke University 130 Hudson Hall Durham, NC 27708 (USA)
2Department of Computer Science Duke University Box 90921, Durham, NC 27708 (USA)
email: Chris Dwyer (dwyer@ece.duke.edu)
*Correspondence to Chris Dwyer, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Duke University 130 Hudson Hall Durham, NC 27708 (USA).
ABSTRACT
The cover image depicts a DNA nanostructure on which collections of attached chromophores function as optical logic gates driving biomolecular sensors. In this process, molecular analytes disrupt the resonance energy transfer between chromophores and can thereby be uniquely identified by a binary combination of input wavelengths while observing a single output wavelength. This encoding technique scales the number of uniquely identifiable species beyond what simple wavelength division multiplexing can achieve, for example, with molecular beacons, given a fixed number of spectrally unique chromophores. Such nanostructures may enable the integration of more sophisticated computational devices based on resonance energy transfer logic for drug delivery, diagnostics, and biosensing. For more information, please read the Full Paper Encoded Multichromophore Response for Simultaneous Label-Free Detection by Chris Dwyer et al., beginning on page 843.
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NOTA DESTE BLOGGER:
Eu sou suspeito para falar, mas recomendo a leitura do livro "Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design", de Stephen Meyer, que recentemente esteve no Brasil no III Simpósio Internacional Darwinismo Hoje, realizado na Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, SP.
Mais informação no site do Signature in the Cell.
E ainda dizem que o Design Inteligente não é ciência. Mas como gente, se a cada dia os cientistas descobrem cada vez mais complexidade em cima de complexidade que o atual paradigma é cientificamente inadequado para explicar. A TDI propõe: sinais de inteligência são empiricamente deectados na natureza todas as vezes que encontrarmos complexidade irredutível de sistemas biológicas e informação complexa especificada como a informação digital encontrada no DNA e que vai ser A ESPINHA DORSAL do novos chips lógicos.
E ainda têm a cara de pau de dizer que a TDI impede o avanço da ciência. Que ciência, cara-pálidas???
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