Bernard Yurke and Erik Winfree are Filling the Nano Toolbox

• Article (pdf)
• DNA and Natural Algorithms Group
• Roukes Group
• Bell Laboratories Physical Research
• Plenty of Room at the Bottom

Bernard Yurke, who generally resides at Bell Labs as a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, is visiting Caltech as a Moore Scholar through September 2004. His scientific contributions span many fields, from cosmology to materials science, but here at Caltech he is pursuing his latest passion, using DNA to construct nanostructures and nanodevices. He shares with us the details of the projects he will be working on during his Caltech sojourn.

..."The challenge is to devise DNA-based structures that can operate like the fuel and removal strands but that do not interact with each other except through a DNA-based molecular motor. Erik Winfree [Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Computation and Neural Systems; PhD ’98] and I have designed a set of DNA strands that should form such structures that are stable until a DNA strand with a specific base sequence is present..." For the rest of the story please read the article linked here (pdf).

For further information please see the websites for the research groups of Erik Winfree and Michael Roukes, Yurke's website at Bell Labs, as well the Feynman lecture at:
• DNA and Natural Algorithms Group
• Roukes Group
• Bell Laboratories Physical Research
• Plenty of Room at the Bottom