Itamar Willner

The synthesis of biomolecule/nanoparticle (or carbon nanotubes) hybrid systems or the self-assembly of biomolecular nano-structures provide materials of new emerging functionalities and properties. The development in the area of nanobiotechnology will be discussed by addressing the following topics: (i) Electrical contacting of redox enzymes with electrodes by means of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) or carbon nanotubes.¹ (ii) The use of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) for molecular and biomolecular sensing.² (iii) The use of the information encoded in nucleic acid structures to self-assemble into functional nanostructures. This will be exemplified with self-organized DNA nanostructures acting as machines (tweezers, walkers, steppers)³, the self-assembly of nucleic acids into nanotubes, the programmed positioning of proteins on DNA nanostructures for the activation of enzyme cascades,⁴ and the use of biomolecular templates for growing nanocircuitry. (iv) The tailoring of DNA replication machines for amplified sensing and potential PCR alternatives.⁵

1. (a) Y. Xiao, F. Patolsky, E. Katz, J.F. Hainfeld, I. Willner, Science 2003, 299, 1877-1881; (b) F. Patolsky, Y. Weizmann and I. Willner, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 2113-2117.
2. R. Gill, M. Zayats, I. Willner, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 7602-7625. 
3. (a) J. Elbaz, M. Moshe, I. Willner, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 3834-3837; (b) J. Elbaz, Z.-G. Wang, R. Orbach, I. Willner, Nano Lett. 2009, 9, 4510-4514. 
4. O.I. Wilner, Y. Weizmann, R. Gill, O. Lioubashevski, R. Freeman, I. Willner, Nature Nanotechnol. 2009, 4, 249-254.  
5. Y. Weizmann, M. Beissenhirtz, Z. Cheglakov, R. Nowarski, M. Kotler, I. Willner, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 7384-7388.