Untangling DNA with a droplet of water, a pipet and a polymer
Friday, February 27, 2015 - 11:30
in Physics & Chemistry
Researchers have long sought an efficient way to untangle DNA in order to study its structure - neatly unraveled and straightened out - under a microscope. Now, chemists and engineers at KU Leuven, in Belgium, have devised a strikingly simple and effective solution: they inject genetic material into a droplet of water and use a pipet tip to drag it over a glass plate covered with a sticky polymer. The droplet rolls like a ball over the plate, sticking the DNA to the plate surface. The unraveled DNA can then be studied under a microscope. The researchers described the technique in the journal ACS Nano.