Electrical and Morphological Characterization of DNA Blockcopolymer Micelles

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Herrmann
• Co-Applicants: Dr. Shachar Richter; Professor Dr. Mukhles Sowwan
• Subject Area: Preparatory and Physical Chemistry of Polymers
• Term: from 2006 to 2010
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 23528683

The aim of the project is to synthesize programmable micellar systems exhibiting a polymeric core and a shell of DNA and to characterize their morphological and electrical properties. The generation of these spherical core-shell nanoparticles is achieved by synthesizing DNA block copolymers composed of an oligonucleotide (ODN) segment and a hydrophobic synthetic polymer block which are connected in a linear fashion. The electronic properties of the synthetic polymer will be chosen to be an insulator, a p- or n-type semiconductor, or a conductor. Due to the amphiphilicity of the biologically organic hybrid materials, phase separation takes place, and spherical micelles with a corona of DNA and a core containing the hydrophobic polymer fragment are formed. Atomic force microscopy and conducting atomic force microscopy will be used to correlate the structure with the electrical properties of single bioorganic nanoparticles. Three- and four-electrode device configurations will be constructed in order to measure the electrical properties of these bioorganic nanoparticles from cryogenic to ambient temperatures. The devices will be designed in a nanogap configuration in order to trap a single particle or arrays of particles. The assembly of the bioorganic nanoparticles will be controlled by the self recognition properties of the DNA shell. After understanding the nature of conductivity of these particles their ability for DNA detection will be examined.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Israel, Palestine
• Major Instrumentation: Atomic force microscope
• Instrumentation Group: 5091 Rasterkraft-Mikroskope