NANO LETTERS
Supramolecular Nanostamping: Using DNA as Movable Type
2005 Vol. 5, No. 6 1061-1064
A. Amy Yu,† Tim A. Savas,‡ G. Scott Taylor,§ Anthony Guiseppe-Elie,§ Henry I. Smith,‡ and Francesco Stellacci*,† Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, and Center for Bioelectronics, Biosensors, and Biochips, Virginia Commonwealth UniVersity, Richmond, Virginia 23284 Received March 14, 2005; Revised Manuscript Received April 12, 2005
ABSTRACT Here we present a novel printing technique (that we call supramolecular nanostamping), based on the replication of single-stranded DNA features through a hybridization-contact-dehybridization cycle. On a surface containing features each made of single-stranded DNA molecules of known sequence, the complementary DNA molecules are hybridized, spontaneously assembling onto the original pattern due to sequencespecific interactions. These complementary DNA strands, on the end that is assembled far from the original surface, are 5′ modified with chemical groups (“sticky ends”) that can form bonds with a target surface that is brought into contact. Heating induces dehybridization between DNA strands, leaving the original pattern on the original surface and the copied pattern on the secondary substrate, and thus stamping (see Figure 1). Molecular recognition provides the unique and disruptive ability of transferring large amounts of information in a single printing cycle, that is the simultaneous stamping of spatial information (i.e., the patterns) and of chemical information (i.e., the features’ DNA sequence − their chemical composition). This method combines high resolution (
