By Yoon Sung-won
Moon Myung-woon, a Korean nanotechnology expert at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), has led the development of DNA nanowire production, the institute said Monday.
This technique, which taps into the nature of liquid surface tension, is expected to speed up the development of drug delivery systems, bionic sensors and analysis of DNA structures, according to KIST.
Moon said his colleagues at KIST have cooperated with a research team of Howard Stone, a professor at Princeton University, for this project. The research results were released in the Wednesday edition of U.S. National Academy of Sciences' journal.
"This technique will be applied to diverse fields that need delivery and arrangement of nano-size materials," Moon said.
The surface of materials such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) gets wrinkled when compressed. Moon and his team developed a technique relying on the nature of liquid surface tension, which works to maintain the minimum surface area.
When a drop of water is applied to the wrinkled surface, the nature of liquid surface tension pulls the wrinkle to make it like a tunnel with a folding structure. Then, the researchers apply another drop of water, mixed with a biomolecule such as DNA, to the wrinkled surface again. As the water dries up, the nanotunnel meets with the DNA and becomes a DNA nanowire, according to the researchers.
Moon's fields of expertise range from nano-based surface control to oil-water separation.
Moon has also pushed to develop materials and software technologies for 3D and 4D printing. He has been developing technologies to use soil as materials for 3D printing and manufacture a 3D printer that can construct buildings.
Moon majored in metal engineering at Seoul National University between 1994 and 1998. He stayed there studying materials engineering for his master's and doctoral degrees.
Moon led his academic pursuit through a postdoctoral course at Harvard University from 2005. In 2007, he started working at KIST as a senior researcher and became a professor at University of Science and Technology in Daejeon. He took office as head of the Computational Science Center at KIST in 2015.
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| Moon Myoung-woon, head of computational science center at Korea Institute of Science and Technology |
This technique, which taps into the nature of liquid surface tension, is expected to speed up the development of drug delivery systems, bionic sensors and analysis of DNA structures, according to KIST.
Moon said his colleagues at KIST have cooperated with a research team of Howard Stone, a professor at Princeton University, for this project. The research results were released in the Wednesday edition of U.S. National Academy of Sciences' journal.
"This technique will be applied to diverse fields that need delivery and arrangement of nano-size materials," Moon said.
The surface of materials such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) gets wrinkled when compressed. Moon and his team developed a technique relying on the nature of liquid surface tension, which works to maintain the minimum surface area.
When a drop of water is applied to the wrinkled surface, the nature of liquid surface tension pulls the wrinkle to make it like a tunnel with a folding structure. Then, the researchers apply another drop of water, mixed with a biomolecule such as DNA, to the wrinkled surface again. As the water dries up, the nanotunnel meets with the DNA and becomes a DNA nanowire, according to the researchers.
Moon's fields of expertise range from nano-based surface control to oil-water separation.
Moon has also pushed to develop materials and software technologies for 3D and 4D printing. He has been developing technologies to use soil as materials for 3D printing and manufacture a 3D printer that can construct buildings.
Moon majored in metal engineering at Seoul National University between 1994 and 1998. He stayed there studying materials engineering for his master's and doctoral degrees.
Moon led his academic pursuit through a postdoctoral course at Harvard University from 2005. In 2007, he started working at KIST as a senior researcher and became a professor at University of Science and Technology in Daejeon. He took office as head of the Computational Science Center at KIST in 2015.
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