Membrane Pore Made From DNA

The first synthetic ion channel made from DNA that can spontaneously assemble within a lipid membrane has been designed and built by researchers in Munich, Germany (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1225624). Modeled after α-hemolysin, a bacterial protein ion channel that acts as an antibiotic, the new DNA-based pore may one day find application as an antimicrobial agent. Other potential applications range from drug delivery to sensor technology, notes Kurt Vesterager Gothelf of the Centre for DNA Nanotechnology at Denmark’s Aarhus University, who was not involved in the research. Critics of DNA nanotechnology often claim that “interesting and aesthetically beautiful DNA nanostructures have been created with DNA origami but that the actual usefulness of DNA nanostructures is questionable,” Gothelf says. The German team’s work shows that DNA origami—designed folding of DNA into defined shapes—is evolving to also produce functional structures, he says. The pore self-assembles from a long DNA strand whose nucleo...