Volume 5 Issue 6, June 2013

Natural systems employ energy converters in the form of chlorophores or chemical entities to transform light into a mechanical response, which allows them to open and close pores. Inspired by nature, in this work, we used metallic nanoparticles as opto-thermal energy converters to switch thermally responsive polymers incorporated into nanporous membranes to open and close fluid flow.

Along with the rapid merge and development of biotechnology and nanotechnology, various DNA nanostructure scaffolds have been designed, characterized and exploited for a range of applications. Particularly, we have seen the evolution of surface-confined DNA probes with rational design from one-dimensional to two-dimensional and then to three-dimensional, which greatly improve our ability to control the density, orientation and passivation of the surface. In this review, we aim to summarize recent progress on the improvement of probe–target recognition properties by introducing DNA nanostructure scaffolds. A range of new strategies have proven to provide significantly enhanced spatial positioning range and accessibility of the probes on surface over previously reported linear structures. We will also describe applications of DNA nanostructure scaffold-based biosensors.