Researchers Build World's Smallest Antenna Using DNA

While we hams work with conductive metal wire when we set out to build the best antenna for our purposes, a group of researchers in Canada used something else: DNA.

Researchers in chemistry at the University of Montreal have created what they call the world's tiniest antenna, one they have engineered using DNA to let them study structural changes that occur within proteins.

This nanoantenna uses light instead of the radio frequencies we hams are so accustomed to.

“The DNA-based nanoantennas can be synthesised with different lengths and flexibilities to optimise their function .... By carefully tuning the nanoantenna design, we have created a five nanometre-long antenna that produces a distinct signal when the protein is performing its biological function.”

— Researcher Scott Harroun

The researchers reported their findings recently in the journal Nature Methods. They compared the fluorescent nanoantenna's performance to that of a repeater: It receives light in one wavelength and transmits back at another, depending on what behaviour it detects in the protein.