CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (CBS) — A tiny hand made from DNA in an Illinois lab may help researchers capture and isolate viruses.
Scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign created the NanoGripper and used it to capture particles of the SARS-CoV2 virus that causes COVID-19.
The NanoGripper is described by UIUC as a “tiny four-fingered ‘hand’ folded from a tiny piece of DNA.” It is able to pick up the COVID virus for highly sensitive rapid detection and can even prevent viral particles from infecting healthy cells, researchers said.
U of I bioengineer and chemistry professor Xing Wang led the team that developed the NanoGripper. The research described their work in the journal Science Robotics.
The NanoGripper was developed with inspiration from the gripping power of the human hand and bird claws. It is designed with flexible fingers, each with three joints, and a palm – with the angle and degree to which the fingers bend is determined by the DNA scaffold.
“We set out to create a nanoscale soft material robot with gripping functions never seen before, to interact with cells, viruses and other molecules for biomedical applications,” Wang said in a press release. “We use DNA for its structural properties. It is strong, flexible and programmable. But even in the field of DNA origami, this is new in terms of the design principle. We fold one long DNA strand back and forth to make all the elements, both the static and moving pieces, in one step.”
The fingers contain so-called DNA aptameters, which are programmed to bind to molecular targets such as the spike proteins of the SARS-CoV2 virus, the release said.
Researchers say the NanoGripper could potentially be used to detect and grab other viruses such as HIV – and perhaps even cancer. It can also be used for targeted drug delivery.
