Ajou's Professor Tae Soup Shim develops microrobot driven by DNA information

[16.11.08]

A research team including Ajou University Professor Tae Soup Shim (Department of Chemical Engineering, pictured above) developed a microrobot that can be controlled more effectively by using DNA information. Findings of the research were published on October 24th in The Nature Nanotechnology, an international academic journal.

The Korean research team, including Professor Shim and Professor So Jung Park from Ewha Womans University, and the U.S. research team, including Professor Dae Yeon Lee and Professor John Crocker from the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S., jointly developed an essential technology for driving a ductile microrobot by using the sequencing data of artificial DNA. Professor Shim participated in the research as the first author.

A ductile microrobot refers to one made with flexible materials such as nano particles or high molecular substances. It can work in a very narrow and complicated environment like blood vessels within the human body and function with specific electrical signals and physical and chemical stimulation. However, such robots had limitations in performing complex instructions. Thus, the research team developed a microrobot whose moves can be controlled more accurately by using DNA sequencing data for the first time in the world.
 

The research team compared the lengths of DNA molecules when DNA is a single strand and forms a double-helix structure after binding, because different DNA lengths can lead to structural changes, including the shortening or lengthening materials. The team attached the DNA made from manipulating sequencing data to gold nano particles and formed a DNA-gold nano particle structure by binding the DNA. It then formed a double-helix structure by combining the structure with the single-strand DNA with manipulated and matching sequencing data. At the same time, the team made a microstructure that can be controlled in certain ways by introducing two DNA strands with different sequencing data. This allowed for mechanical actions such as folding or overturning, etc.
 

Professor Shim said, "Unlike the computer that is controlled by zero and one, the microrobot can execute more varied and complex instructions because it can be controlled by DNA consisting of A, T, G, and C," adding, "We will be able to make microrobots that can work more precisely even in complex and challenging environments, including drug delivery or blood vessel expansion, if DNA-based control technology develops further."

The research was conducted with the support of the Basic Research Project (Individual Studies) carried out by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center of the National Science Foundation in the U.S.