Towards DNA- and Protein-Based Nanoelectronics?



Danny Porat
 
Dept. of Chemistry, The Hebrew University


    DNA is considered as one of the attractive candidates for molecular electronics. It was studied in many ways including: electrical transport, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The results of various measurements of charge transport in DNA seem inconsistent. A deeper look into the experiments can offer a general understanding of the reports and ways to optimize the conductivity in DNA.
    I will show electrical measurements of relatively high current (200 nA@2 V) in short (10 nm long) DNA molecules supported by multileveled evidence. Then I will present measurements of the electronic structure of  homogeneous DNA molecules by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS). I will also show clear polarizability of  G4-DNA, a promising DNA derivative. Finally I will show results on SP1 proteins hybridized with goldnanoparticles.
 

                               picture

Schematic of the experiment (a) and a topography image of gold nanoparticles connected through double-stranded DNA to an underlying gold surface surrounded by a single-stranded DNA monolayer (b). A collection of current-voltage curves measured on different molecules from various samples (c).