Nano: Collaborative Research: EMT : Toward Universal Bottom-Up Nanofabrication with DNA

纳米：合作研究：EMT：利用 DNA 实现通用自下而上的纳米加工

• 批准号: 0855212
• 负责人: Bernard Yurke
• 金额: $ 28.13万
• 依托单位: Boise State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-06-23 至 2010-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0855212&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Nano; Collaborative; Research; EMT; Toward

Background. One of the greatest contrasts between the biological organisms and human technology lies in how they are constructed. Plants and animals grow from the inside out, often from a single cell to an organism containing billions of cells, each of which is built from molecular components that are manufactured with atomic precision within the cell. In contrast, mankind's greatest engineering marvels, such as airplanes and skyscrapers and computers, are put together from the outside in, with components being manufactured in factories and assembled piece by piece. This distinction is often referred to as "bottom-up" vs "top-down" assembly in the biological "bottom-up" approach, the assembly process is guided by the components themselves, while in the engineering "top-down" approach, there is an entity conceptually above the object being built that supervises and guides the manufacturing process. Human engineering has mastered top-down methods to create systems of great complexity (but has not extended them to the atomic and molecular scale) and has exploited bottom-up methods for the synthesis of diverse molecular, polymeric and crystalline structures (but has not created information-rich structures of great complexity). Project Goals. Our goal is to demonstrate how bottom-up techniques can create complex atomically-defined structures, as biology does, by embedding information and computational processes within the molecules themselves. In biological development, a program (the genome) uses biochemistry to guide the growth process and determine the ultimate form of the organism. In the parlance of computer science, a system that can be programmed to accomplish any task that can be accomplished is called a "universal" system. A universal computer can be programmed to perform any computation, while a universal constructor can be programmed to carry out any construction task. Recent work has theoretically shown that universal molecular self-assembly is possible and has experimentally demonstrated that the approach shows promise, using DNA as a construction material to create functional molecular devices so-called "DNA nanotechnology". In this proposal, we aim to bring DNA nanotechnology to the point where universal bottom-up self-assembly can be achieved well enough that immediate technological applications can be demonstrated. Specific Aims. We aim to make major advances both in our ability to program complex self-assembly logic and in our ability to interface the DNA structures to chemically-, optically-, and electronically-relevant materials. We will focus on four main goals, which span the range from long-term fundamental work to near-term development: (1) self-assembly of a template for a complex molecular-scale electronic circuit; (2) programming the behavior of molecular walking motors to transport components in nanofabrication tasks; (3) attaching carbon nanotube wires to create small nanoscale electronic circuits; and (4) integrating bottom-up and top-down fabrication by placing and orienting self-assembled components at target locations on silicon wafers with functional electrical contacts. Uniquely, the aims of this research require simultaneously development of two novel computing systems: the first, inspired by biological self-assembly and development, operates at the level of molecular machines and biochemistry, and will be programmed to construct the second, composed of carbon nanotubes assembled into nanoscale circuits, which operates at the electrical level like conventional computing devices.Broader Impact. An important aspect of this project will be the training of young scientists (undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs) capable of spanning the interdisciplinary subjects involved in this work.

背景。生物有机体和人类技术之间最大的区别之一在于它们的构造方式。植物和动物从内到外生长，通常从单个细胞成长为包含数十亿个细胞的有机体，每个细胞都是由细胞内以原子精度制造的分子成分构成的。 相比之下，人类最伟大的工程奇迹，例如飞机、摩天大楼和计算机，都是从外到内组装起来的，部件在工厂制造并逐件组装。 这种区别通常被称为生物“自下而上”方法中的“自下而上”与“自上而下”组装，组装过程由组件本身引导，而在工程“自上而下”方法中，从概念上讲，在正在构建的对象之上有一个实体，用于监督和指导制造过程。 人类工程学已经掌握了自上而下的方法来创建极其复杂的系统（但尚未将其扩展到原子和分子尺度），并利用自下而上的方法来合成不同的分子、聚合物和晶体结构（但尚未创建信息丰富且极其复杂的结构）。 项目目标。 我们的目标是展示自下而上的技术如何能够像生物学一样，通过在分子本身中嵌入信息和计算过程来创建复杂的原子定义的结构。 在生物发育中，程序（基因组）使用生物化学来指导生长过程并确定生物体的最终形式。 用计算机科学的术语来说，一个可以通过编程来完成任何可以完成的任务的系统被称为“通用”系统。 通用计算机可以被编程来执行任何计算，而通用构造器可以被编程来执行任何构造任务。 最近的工作从理论上表明通用分子自组装是可能的，并且通过实验证明该方法显示出前景，使用 DNA 作为构建材料来创建功能性分子设备，即所谓的“DNA 纳米技术”。 在这项提案中，我们的目标是使 DNA 纳米技术达到可以很好地实现通用自下而上自组装的程度，从而可以证明直接的技术应用。具体目标。我们的目标是在复杂自组装逻辑编程的能力以及将 DNA 结构与化学、光学和电子相关材料连接的能力方面取得重大进展。我们将重点关注四个主要目标，涵盖从长期基础工作到近期发展的范围：（1）复杂分子级电子电路模板的自组装； (2) 对分子行走马达的行为进行编程，以在纳米制造任务中运输组件； (3)附着碳纳米管线以创建小型纳米级电子电路； (4) 通过将自组装组件放置和定向在具有功能性电接触的硅晶片上的目标位置，集成自下而上和自上而下的制造。独特的是，这项研究的目标需要同时开发两个新颖的计算系统：第一个受生物自组装和发展的启发，在分子机器和生物化学水平上运行，并将被编程以构建第二个由碳组成的系统纳米管组装成纳米级电路，它像传统计算设备一样在电气层面上运行。更广泛的影响。该项目的一个重要方面将是培训能够跨越这项工作所涉及的跨学科学科的年轻科学家（本科生、研究生和博士后）。