CDNA research groups

Organic Nanochemistry

Kurt Vesterager Gothelf, Professor (MSO), Director of CDNA
Department of Chemistry and iNANO, University of Aarhus, Denmark

Research: Design and synthesis of new organic and bioorganic compounds such as DNA conjugates which can assemble into functional nanostructures with applications in molecular electronics, biosensors, singlet oxygen formation and as new materials.

Nucleic Acid Technology

Jørgen Kjems, Professor
Department of Molecular Biology and iNANO, University of Aarhus

Research: RNA and DNA biochemistry, chemical modification of nucleic acids, cell biology, delivery of oligonucleotides to cells and animal models, fluorescence microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) of nucleic acids.

Surface science and nanoscience

Flemming Besenbacher, Dr. Scient., Professor, Head of iNANO
Department of Physics and Astronomy, and iNANO, University of Aarhus, Denmark

Research: Surface science and nanoscience. Development and use of scanning probe microscopies (STM and AFM), a variety of other surface sensitive techniques to study clean and adsorbate-covered surfaces, synthesis and characterization of nanostructures on surfaces, adsorption of bio-molecules at surfaces and biosensors.

DNA Nanotechnology

Thom Labean, Associate Research Professor
Departments of Chemistry and Computer Science, Duke University, NC, USA

Research: Development of novel self-assembling DNA nanostructures for bottom-up nanofabrication and for biomolecular computing applications. Use of DNA structures to organize other materials such as proteins, metals, nanoparticles, and carbon nanotubes

International collaborator: Yan lab

Hao Yan, Professor
Department of Chemistry & The Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, AZ, USA

Research: Programmed design and assembly of biologically inspired nanomaterials and exploration of its applications in nanoelectronics, controlled macromolecular interactions and biosensing.

CDNA highlights

March 2, 2010

Single-molecule chemical reactions on DNA origami

Researchers at the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for DNA Nanotechnology (CDNA) at iNANO demonstrate that it is possible to control chemical reactions on DNA nanostructures and generate images of reactions of individual molecules. The results were published on 28 February in Nature Nanotechnology. The article is available here

CDNA news

elena February 12, 2010

Electrochemical assay for attomole detection of DNA

The project was carried out in collaboration between CDNA and DTI. We combined a magnetic bead sandwich hybridization capture assay used for pre-concentration and bioseparation of target DNA, with a lipase-based amplification and electrochemical readout system. The signal amplification in the DNA assay is based on the catalytic activity of a lipase enzyme, and this “electrochemical blotting” concept is principally new. The use of this hydrolytic enzyme allowed for close to few-molecule detection of lipase-labeled DNAs at the electrode surface, due to accumulation of the catalysis product (ester bond cleavage and removal of the redox label from the zone of electrochemical reaction). The developed electrochemical lipase- and magnetic beads-based sandwich hybridization assay represents a fundamentally new electrochemical approach for sensitive DNA detection.

ChemComm link