Assembly and alignment of nanowires or nanotubes are critical steps for integrating functional nanodevices by the bottom-up strategy. However, it is still challenging to manipulate either an array of nanowires or individual nanowires in a controllable manner. Here we present a simple but versatile method of positioning and aligning nanowires by hydrodynamic focusing that functions as 'hydro-twe...

pH-sensitive gated mesoporous silica nanoparticles have been synthesized. Increased extracellular pH and internalization into living yeast cells triggered molecular gate aperture and cargo release. Proper performance of the system was demonstrated with nanodevices loaded with fluorescein or with the antifungal agent tebuconazole. Interestingly, nanodevices loaded with tebuconazole significantly...

Research in the near future involves the integration of multi-functional nanodevices into selfcontained nanosystems with capabilities of sensing, controlling, communicating and actuating/responding. A nanosystem is composed not only of nanodevices but also a nanopower-source (or nano-battery). But the small size of the nano-battery significantly limits the battery lifetime. It is highly desirab...

Here we demonstrate that we can rationally and finely control the functionality of different DNA-based nanodevices and nanoswitches using electronic inputs. To demonstrate the versatility of our approach we have used here three different model DNA-based nanoswitches triggered by heavy metals and specific DNA sequences and a copper-responsive DNAzyme. To achieve electronic-induced control of the...

The discovery of the spin-torque effect has made magnetic nanodevices realistic candidates for active elements of memory devices and applications. Magnetoresistive effects allow the read-out of increasingly small magnetic bits, and the spin torque provides an efficient tool to manipulate - precisely, rapidly and at low energy cost - the magnetic state, which is in turn the central information m...

In biology, nucleic acids are carriers of molecular information: DNA's base sequence stores and imparts genetic instructions, while RNA's sequence plays the role of a messenger and a regulator of gene expression. As biopolymers, nucleic acids also have exciting physicochemical properties, which can be rationally influenced by the base sequence in myriad ways. Consequently, in recent years nucle...

Dendrimer-based anticancer nanotherapeutics containing approximately 5 folate molecules have shown in vitro and in vivo efficacy in cancer cell targeting. Multivalent interactions have been inferred from observed targeting efficacy, but have not been experimentally proven. This study provides quantitative and systematic evidence for multivalent interactions between these nanodevices and folate-...

Biomolecular motors, in particular motor proteins, are ideally suited to introduce chemically powered movement of selected components into devices engineered at the micro- and nanoscale level. The design of such hybrid "bio/nano"-devices requires suitable synthetic environments, and the identification of unique applications. We discuss current approaches to utilize active transport and actuatio...

We study the transport properties of multiterminal graphene nanodevices using the Landauer-Buttiker approach and the tight binding model. We consider a four-terminal device made at the crossing of a zigzag and armchair nanoribbons and two types of T-junction devices. The transport properties of graphene multiterminal devices are highly sensitive to the details of the junction region. Thus the p...

Molecular recognition, programmability, self-assembling capabilites and biocompatibility are unique features of DNA. The basic approach of DNA nanotechnology is to exploit these properties in order to fabricate novel materials and structures on the nanometer scale. This cumulative dissertation deals with three aspects of this young research area: fast analysis, autonomous control of functional ...