Stephanie Lauback of Hillsdale College will visit campus to discuss her research involving DNA nanodevices.
Tremendous advances in DNA nanotechnology have enabled dynamic nanodevices to exhibit complex motion, programmed conformational changes, long-range transport, and tunable mechanical responses. These capabilities make DNA nanotechnology a highly attractive platform for developing nanoscale machines. The ability to directly control these devices in real time is a key step toward creating functional molecular-scale robotic systems and enabling biomedical innovations.
This presentation introduces a novel approach for the real-time, direct manipulation of DNA nanodevices with precise spatial resolution, sub-second response times, and tunable force application — achieved using externally applied magnetic fields on a low-cost platform. Although direct magnetic manipulation at the molecular scale is inherently challenging, micrometer-scale control is well established — for example, through the manipulation of micron-sized beads via magnetic fields. To bridge the gap between molecular and microscale control, stiff mechanical DNA levers were designed to rigidly couple the movement of a magnetic bead to the reconfiguration of a DNA nanodevice. Superparamagnetic beads, such as MyOne Dynabeads, are commonly used in applications including detection, medical diagnostics, transport, and cell separation.
Despite this broad utility, the magnetization behavior of individual superparamagnetic beads under varying magnetic fields has not been fully characterized. This DNA lever system offers a new method to investigate field-dependent magnetization of individual beads over magnetic fields ranging from 10 to 100 Oe. Preliminary results on the magnetization response of MyOne Dynabeads will also be presented.
Join us on Friday, Apr. 25, for this exciting presentation from Stephanie Lauback, assistant professor of physics at Hillsdale College. Lunch will be available in Hayes 216 from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and the presentation will begin in Hayes 211/213 at 12:10 p.m. We hope to see you there!