Metallic conduction through engineered DNA: DNA nanoelectronic building blocks

A novel way of engineering DNA molecules involves substituting the imino proton of each base pair with a metal ion to obtain M-DNA with altered electronic properties. We report the first direct evidence of metallic like conduction through 15 mum long M-DNA. In contrast, measurements on B-DNA give evidence of semiconducting behavior with a few hundred meV band gap at room temperature, The drastic change of M-DNA conductivity points to a new degree of freedom in the development of future molecular electronics utilizing DNA, such as creating all-DNA junction devices for use as nanoelectronic building blocks.