BIOLOGICAL NANOSTRUCTURES AND NANO-NETWORKS

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Biological Nanostructures Nanotechnology is a critical field for the future of biomedicine and involves the creation of functional material, devices and systems through the control of matter at the scale of 1 to 100 nanometers. Physical techniques, such as atomic force and scanning tunneling microscopy, optical traps and tweezers, nanoscale carbon cones and bioactive nanotubes are only now becoming feasible. It is not yet possible, using these techniques, to routinely arrange individual atoms in space yielding new devices and materials. Biological systems, however, provide the capability of direct complex molecular assemblies and through the informational content of DNA allow access to the nanoscale world. The purpose of this project is to develop a technology for creating nanomaterials using engineered biological gene networks. The goal is to design genes and gene networks that will control the assembly of nanoscale structures. The technology will utilize: 1) the computer-aided design of large DNA molecules encoding series of interacting genes; 2) the complete chemical synthesis of these DNA molecules up to 10,000 base pairs using new core technology developed by Egea Biosciences. This project will carry out specific experiments to prove principle and provide demonstrations of the technology. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS. The work will result in novel genes that encode biochemical functions. This new technology would have applications in the development of medical diagnostics.