This is a great example of working across many science disciplines at once. Using DNA as a thermometer to make nanoscale instruments that can be used in Vitro or embedded into microelectronics. Folks in the sciences are gonna find themselves working across fields much more often in the future.
DNA Creates Tiniest Thermometer Yet - IEEE Spectrum
“In recent years, biochemists also discovered that biomolecules such as proteins or RNA (a molecule similar to DNA) are employed as nanothermometers in living organisms and report temperature variation by folding or unfolding,” said professor Alexis Vallée-Bélisle, a senior member of the University of Montreal team, in a press release. “Inspired by those natural nanothermometers, which are typically 20,000x smaller than a human hair, we have created various DNA structures that can fold and unfold at specifically defined temperatures.”
In research described in the journal ACS Nano, the researchers didn’t simply get the DNA to unfold in the presence of heat, but programmed it to have either have a precise response over a small temperature interval of around 0.05 degrees Celsius or an extended linear response over a wide temperature range between 25 to 90 degrees Celsius.
Desrosiers added: “Using these simple design rules we are able to create DNA structures that fold and unfold at a specifically desired temperature...By adding optical reporters to these DNA structures, we can therefore create 5-nm-wide thermometers that produce an easily detectable signal as a function of temperature.”
These DNA-based nanoscale thermometers are initially targeted for biological measurements where they can be used to measure temperature variations inside each individual cell.
“Tumor cells are known to be warmer than healthy cells, so our thermometer could be used to identify these tumor cells,” said Vallée-Bélisle in an e-mail interview with IEEE Spectrum.
DNA Creates Tiniest Thermometer Yet - IEEE Spectrum
“In recent years, biochemists also discovered that biomolecules such as proteins or RNA (a molecule similar to DNA) are employed as nanothermometers in living organisms and report temperature variation by folding or unfolding,” said professor Alexis Vallée-Bélisle, a senior member of the University of Montreal team, in a press release. “Inspired by those natural nanothermometers, which are typically 20,000x smaller than a human hair, we have created various DNA structures that can fold and unfold at specifically defined temperatures.”
In research described in the journal ACS Nano, the researchers didn’t simply get the DNA to unfold in the presence of heat, but programmed it to have either have a precise response over a small temperature interval of around 0.05 degrees Celsius or an extended linear response over a wide temperature range between 25 to 90 degrees Celsius.
Desrosiers added: “Using these simple design rules we are able to create DNA structures that fold and unfold at a specifically desired temperature...By adding optical reporters to these DNA structures, we can therefore create 5-nm-wide thermometers that produce an easily detectable signal as a function of temperature.”
These DNA-based nanoscale thermometers are initially targeted for biological measurements where they can be used to measure temperature variations inside each individual cell.
“Tumor cells are known to be warmer than healthy cells, so our thermometer could be used to identify these tumor cells,” said Vallée-Bélisle in an e-mail interview with IEEE Spectrum.
