Skip to main content
Intellect

Nature and electronics meet: How to make a tiny wire and connect it to DNA

Using the structure of DNA as electrical circuitry in computer chips may shrink the costs of production in the field of nano-electronics.

In a new study published in Chemistry of Materials, a team of Brigham Young University scientists introduces a method for making tiny wires on an insulating surface and connecting them at pre-determined points on a strand of DNA.

“We’re using a bottom-up approach to see if we can get things like DNA, proteins and other chemicals to assemble exactly where we direct them,” said Matthew Linford, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at BYU. “We hope this will provide new models for shrinking the size for semiconductor chips.”

The study’s publication coincides with the award of a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation for the BYU researchers to continue the project. The grant will fund the project for four years with the goal of advancing the use of DNA as a template for tiny electrical circuits.

The process begins by etching a carefully controlled pattern onto a surface using an atomic force microscope. This is done in a chemical solution that leaves an extremely thin layer of metal over the pattern, making tiny wires. To these wires, the researchers bind strands of DNA that become the scaffolding for an electrical circuit.

“What we are borrowing from nature is the great flexibility DNA has to form a wide variety of shapes,” said Robert Davis, associate professor of physics and astronomy at BYU. “The DNA is also robust and can handle a wide variety of conditions.”

Along with the prospect for developing a cheaper way to make computer chips, the researchers hope their work leads to devices that are packed more densely than today’s semiconductors.

The project crosses three disciplines at BYU: chemical engineering, chemistry and physics. Joining Linford and Davis on the NSF grant award is John Harb, professor of chemical engineering and associate dean of the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Dean Wheeler, assistant professor of chemical engineering; and Adam Woolley, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Woolley is also a recent recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the government’s highest honor offered to young scientists.

Students at the graduate and undergraduate level also assist the project in the lab and benefit from exposure to scientific fields other than their major.

“This is providing the students with outstanding training across a number of disciplines,” Linford said. “If you go into industry, people have problems to solve and it doesn’t matter what discipline you tap into to solve that problem.”

Writer: Marissa Ballantyne

Related Articles

data-content-type="article"

Wildfires in residential areas are on the rise; why hydrants and the water system behind them were never meant to stop those fires

July 01, 2025
BYU professor Rob Sowby teaches and studies environmental engineering, urban water infrastructure and sustainability. He has particular expertise in the planning, design, construction and operation of public water systems. That expertise has been increasingly important (and regularly sought out) in the wake of apocalyptic wildfires that have taxed those public water systems.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Meet the BYU math student helping make wildfire predictions faster and smarter

June 25, 2025
Using machine learning and math, a BYU student improved a key tool firefighters rely on during wildfire season
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Geology meets history: BYU professor studies WWII shrapnel on Normandy beaches

June 05, 2025
Eighty years after D-Day, BYU geologists uncover lingering WWII shrapnel on Normandy beaches to study how history still shapes the coastline today.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText=