![]() ![]() While the conductive properties of DNA have been studied using a wide range of techniques, most experiments have focused on understanding conduction in terms base stacking and have yielded conflicting results. At about the same time, the physicist Leon Brillouin suggested that the DNA backbone – the long strands that support the bases and give DNA its structure – rather than the bases, might support conduction because of its periodic structure. This is because the bases in the middle of the double helix stack in a way reminiscent of graphite – which is an excellent conductor. Not long after the double-stranded structure of DNA was revealed by Watson and Crick in 1953, scientists suspected that the molecule it might support electrical conduction. ![]() DNA is an attractive building block for tiny electronic circuits because of its ability to assemble into complex interconnected patterns that would be required for assembling circuit components. Some scientists also believe that conduction through DNA could protect the genomes of some organisms by transmitting the damage caused by oxidizing chemicals to certain locations on chromosomes where the damage causes the least harm.Ī better understanding of conduction could also lead to the engineering of new forms of DNA with properties more suited to electronic applications. Their discovery could help provide a better understanding of the role that conduction plays in how living cells detect and repair damaged DNA and could ultimately lead to strands of DNA being used in “molecular electronics” technologies of the future.īiophysicists are keen to understand how electrons are conducted in DNA because conduction is thought to be an important mechanism by which enzymes recognize damaged DNA that, if not repaired, could lead to cancer. Physicists in Japan have gained important new insights into how DNA might behave as an electrical conductor.
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