Chemistry

Materials science

Molecular biology

Biochemistry

Logic gate

Nanotechnology

Organic chemistry

Biology

Molecule

Computer science

Algorithm

Computational biology

Aptamer

Nanorobotics

Molecular recognition

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Among the vast number of recognition molecules, DNA aptamers generated from cell-SELEX exhibit unique properties for identifying cell membrane biomarkers, in particular protein receptors on cancer cells. To integrate all recognition and computing modules within a single structure, a three-dimensional (3D) DNA-based logic gate nanomachine was constructed to target overexpressed cancer cell biomarkers with bispecific recognition. Thus, when the Boolean operator "AND" returns a true value, it is followed by an "ON" signal when the specific cell type is presented. Compared with freely dispersed double-stranded DNA (dsDNA)-based molecular circuits, this 3D DNA nanostructure, termed DNA-logic gate triangular prism (TP), showed better identification performance, enabling, in turn, better molecular targeting and fabrication of recognition nanorobotics.

Engineering a 3D DNA-Logic Gate Nanomachine for Bispecific Recognition and Computing on Target Cell Surfaces