We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Review Stresses Biomedical Applications for Designed DNA Nanostructures

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 05 Oct 2015

Image: Virus-protein-coated DNA origami nanostructures. With the help of protein encapsulation, such nanostructures can be transported into human cells much more efficiently (Photo courtesy of Dr. Veikko Linko and Dr. Mauri Kostiainen, Aalto University).

Image: Virus-protein-coated DNA origami nanostructures. With the help of protein encapsulation, such nanostructures can be transported into human cells much more efficiently (Photo courtesy of Dr. Veikko Linko and Dr. Mauri Kostiainen, Aalto University).

A recent review article described how self-assembled DNA nanostructures could be used in molecular-scale diagnostics and as smart drug-delivery vehicles.

Investigators at Aalto University (Finland) described in the October 2015 issue of the journal Trends in Biotechnology how DNA molecules could be assembled into tailored and complex nanostructures, and how such structures could be used for bio-nanotechnological applications such as molecular diagnostics and targeted therapeutics.

The authors said that DNA molecules can be assembled into custom predesigned shapes via hybridization of sequence-complementary domains. The folded structures have high spatial addressability and tremendous potential to serve as platforms and active components in a plethora of bio-nanotechnological applications. They stressed that DNA is a truly programmable material, and its nanoscale engineering opens up numerous attractive possibilities to develop novel methods for therapeutics. Furthermore, tailored molecular devices could be used to target cells and trigger cellular actions in the biological environment.

"Nowadays, software and techniques to design and simulate DNA nanostructures are extremely powerful and user-friendly, and thus, researchers can easily construct their own DNA-objects for various uses. The big boom in the field of structural DNA nanotechnology happened in 2006, when Paul Rothemund introduced a technique dubbed "DNA origami". This method is the starting point for practically all other straightforward design approaches available today", said first author Dr. Veikko Linko, a postdoctoral researcher in biohybrid materials at Aalto University.

Related Links:
Aalto University

Visit expo >

New

Gold Member

Neonatal Heel Incision Device

Tenderfoot

POC Helicobacter Pylori Test Kit
Hepy Urease Test

New

ACR Urine Test

On Call MultiPro ACR

New

Alzheimer’s Blood Test

LucentAD p-Tau 217

Latest BioResearch News

Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel

New Plasma Tau Assay Improves Prediction of Alzheimer’s Progression

Predicting which patients with early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease will decline more rapidly remains a key challenge in both research and patient care. Growing interest in tau biology, along with advances... Read more

Routine Blood Markers Predict Heart Failure Risk in Prediabetes

Heart failure prevention relies on finding high-risk adults before symptoms appear, yet effective stratification remains difficult in routine care. Prediabetes affects an estimated 115.2 million U.... Read more

First IVD Immunoassay to Detect Alzheimer’s Risk Gene Variant Receives CE Mark

Alzheimer’s disease accounts for up to 70% of dementia cases worldwide and is projected to affect nearly 150 million people by 2050, underscoring the need for scalable, accessible diagnostics.... Read more

AI Model Enables Personalized Glucose Predictions for Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) requires careful blood glucose monitoring and precise insulin dosing, as even small errors can lead to dangerous excursions. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) provides real-time... Read more

Molecular Diagnostics

view channel

Image:

Blood Biomarker Predicts Cognitive Outcomes After Cardiac Arrest

Long-term cognitive impairment is a frequent consequence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest yet early prediction remains difficult. Clinicians commonly use blood-based markers to estimate brain injury risk... Read more

Image: Burkitt lymphoma is the most common childhood cancer in Africa (photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Liquid Biopsy Enables Faster Diagnosis of Childhood Cancer in Africa

Burkitt lymphoma is the most common childhood cancer in Africa and progresses rapidly, making fast, accurate diagnosis essential to survival. Although survival can exceed 90% when therapy starts quickly,... Read more

Image: Blood ctDNA analysis can identify breast cancer patients unlikely to respond to endocrine therapy alone (photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

Blood Test Helps Guide Treatment in Older Women with Breast Cancer

Older women with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer often face difficult decisions about treatment, especially when surgery and radiation can lead to side effects such as scarring, swelling, infection... Read more

Liquid Biopsy Method Pinpoints Disease Source From a Single Drop of Blood

Liquid biopsy offers a noninvasive way to assess disease, but many assays still lack reliable tissue-of-origin localization and robust performance for early cancer detection. Researchers now report a method... Read more

Hematology

view channel

$Image: Hemex Health’s Gazelle platform is designed to rapidly separate and detect hemoglobin fractions and variants using miniaturized electrophoresis technology (photo courtesy of Hemex Health)$

Rapid Cartridge-Based Test Aims to Expand Access to Hemoglobin Disorder Diagnosis

Sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia are hemoglobin disorders that often require referral to specialized laboratories for definitive diagnosis, delaying results for patients and clinicians.... Read more

New Guidelines Aim to Improve AL Amyloidosis Diagnosis

Light chain (AL) amyloidosis is a rare, life-threatening bone marrow disorder in which abnormal amyloid proteins accumulate in organs. Approximately 3,260 people in the United States are diagnosed... Read more

Image: The new device can fit in the palm and is capable of measuring the quality of red blood cells (Photo courtesy of Xiaoyun Ding)

Fast and Easy Test Could Revolutionize Blood Transfusions

Blood transfusions are a cornerstone of modern medicine, yet red blood cells can deteriorate quietly while sitting in cold storage for weeks. Although blood units have a fixed expiration date, cells from... Read more

Automated Hemostasis System Helps Labs of All Sizes Optimize Workflow

High-volume hemostasis sections must sustain rapid turnaround while managing reruns and reflex testing. Manual tube handling and preanalytical checks can strain staff time and increase opportunities for error.... Read more

Immunology

view channel

Image: Overview of the microfluidic assay for cancer-associated leukocyte adhesion profiling (Photo courtesy of Brian Choi, Seyong Kwon, Min Seok Lee, et al.,)

Microfluidic Chip Detects Cancer Recurrence from Immune Response Signals

Early identification of treatment response and relapse remains a major challenge in solid tumors, where minimal residual disease is difficult to detect with routine imaging and blood tests.... Read more

Cancer Mutation ‘Fingerprints’ to Improve Prediction of Immunotherapy Response

Cancer cells accumulate thousands of genetic mutations, but not all mutations affect tumors in the same way. Some make cancer cells more visible to the immune system, while others allow tumors to evade... Read more

Image: The study identified a distinct immune signature associated with treatment-resistant myasthenia gravis (Dodd, Katherine C. et al., Med (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.medj.2025.100987)

Immune Signature Identified in Treatment-Resistant Myasthenia Gravis

Myasthenia gravis is a rare autoimmune disorder in which immune attack at the neuromuscular junction causes fluctuating weakness that can impair vision, movement, speech, swallowing, and breathing.... Read more

New Biomarker Predicts Chemotherapy Response in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive form of breast cancer in which patients often show widely varying responses to chemotherapy. Predicting who will benefit from treatment remains challenging,... Read more

Microbiology

view channel

Breath Analysis Approach Offers Rapid Detection of Bacterial Infection

Accurate and rapid identification of bacterial infections remains challenging in acute care, where delays can hinder timely, targeted therapy. Infectious diseases are a major cause of mortality worldwide,... Read more

$Image: The study\'s findings show persistent standardization gaps among at-home gut microbiome testing kits (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)$

Study Highlights Accuracy Gaps in Consumer Gut Microbiome Kits

Direct-to-consumer gut microbiome kits promise personalized insights by profiling fecal bacteria and generating health readouts, but their analytical accuracy remains uncertain. A new study shows that... Read more

Image: New WHO guidelines recommend rapid molecular TB tests, tongue swab sampling and sputum pooling to improve diagnosis (Photo courtesy of WHO)

WHO Recommends Near POC Tests, Tongue Swabs and Sputum Pooling for TB Diagnosis

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world’s leading infectious disease killers, yet millions of cases go undiagnosed or are detected too late. Barriers such as reliance on sputum samples, limited laboratory... Read more

Image: The new imaging approach uses microscopic glowing tags to reveal gene activity in individual C. diff cells (Photo courtesy of Nicholas DiBenedetto)

New Imaging Approach Could Help Predict Dangerous Gut Infection

Clostridioides difficile infections affect roughly half a million people in the United States each year and are a leading cause of infectious diarrhea in healthcare settings. The bacterium can trigger... Read more

Pathology

view channel

AI-Powered Tool to Transform Dermatopathology Workflow

Skin cancer accounts for the largest number of cancer diagnoses in the United States, placing sustained pressure on pathology services. Diagnostic interpretation can be variable for challenging melanocytic... Read more

New Chromogenic Culture Media Enable Rapid Detection of Candida Infections

Invasive Candida infections are challenging for healthcare systems, with some strains spreading rapidly in hospitals and showing resistance to multiple antifungal drugs. Candida auris is associated with... Read more

Image: The new methyl-copying PCR method preserves DNA methylation patterns during amplification (Photo courtesy of Syndex Bio)

Novel mcPCR Technology to Transform Testing of Clinical Samples

DNA methylation is an important biological marker used in the diagnosis and monitoring of many diseases, including cancer. These chemical modifications to DNA influence gene activity and can reveal early... Read more

$Image: The study\'s results indicated that when Aβ levels were high, women had significantly higher plasma p‑tau217 levels than men (photo courtesy of Shutterstock$

Sex Differences in Alzheimer’s Biomarkers Linked to Faster Cognitive Decline

Sex differences in Alzheimer’s disease present ongoing diagnostic challenges, with women often experiencing a disproportionate disease burden even when preclinical amyloid-beta levels are similar to men.... Read more

Technology

view channel

Image: Loza Tadesse, left, and her group looked to design a sensitive, portable breath test. Tadesse and Aditya Garg stand next to the Raman microscope (Photo courtesy of Tony Pulsone/MIT)

Portable Breath Sensor Detects Pneumonia Biomarkers in Minutes

Pneumonia is commonly confirmed with chest X-rays or laboratory assays that can take hours, delaying clinical decisions in acute and outpatient settings. Breath-based diagnostics promise faster answers... Read more

Image: The Fluid Ease Pro ClipTip supports reproducible pipetting in both routine and demanding workflows (photo courtesy of Thermo Fisher Scientific)

New Electronic Pipette Enhances Workflows with Touchscreen Control

Manual pipetting remains a routine yet error-prone step that can affect reproducibility and throughput in clinical and research laboratories. Training demands and ergonomic strain also add variability... Read more

Image: The AI system analyzes diverse inputs in order to make a diagnosis based on traceable reasoning (Zhao, W., Wu, C., Fan, Y. et al. Nature (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-10097-9)

AI Model Outperforms Clinicians in Rare Disease Detection

Rare diseases affect an estimated 300 million people worldwide, yet diagnosis is often protracted and error-prone. Many conditions present with heterogeneous signs that overlap with common disorders, leading... Read more

AI-Driven Diagnostic Demonstrates High Accuracy in Detecting Periprosthetic Joint Infection

Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a rare but serious complication affecting 1% to 2% of primary joint replacement surgeries. The condition occurs when bacteria or fungi infect tissues around an implanted... Read more

Industry

view channel

Automated MSI Test Gains IVDR Certification to Guide CRC Therapy

Treatment selection for metastatic colorectal cancer often requires knowledge of a tumor’s microsatellite instability (MSI) status. Timely results can help clinicians decide on immunotherapy options.... Read more

New Partnership Brings Alzheimer’s Blood Biomarker Test to Community Screening Network

Lucent Diagnostics, a brand of Quanterix Corporation, has partnered with Life Line Screening (LLS) to offer Lucent’s non‑invasive, blood‑based biomarker test across the United States. Programs are... Read more

MGI Tech Strengthens Sequencing Portfolio with Dual Acquisition

MGI Tech Co., Ltd. (Shenzhen, China) announced the acquisition of STOmics and CycloneSEQ on March 3, 2026, as part of its “SEQALL+GLI+Omics” strategy. According to the company, the combined portfolio spans... Read more

Agilent Technologies Acquires Pathology Diagnostics Company Biocare Medical

Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, CA, USA) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Biocare Medical (Pacheco, CA, USA), expanding its pathology portfolio through the addition of highly complementary... Read more