DNA nanorings

A simple approach to making rigid DNA nanorings with tailor-made functionality has been developed by Michael Famulok and his team at the University of Bonn, Germany.¹ The development could open up new pathways for the construction of highly organised, DNA-based objects for preparing nanocomposite materials. 

Famulok's nanorings reveal themselves under the atomic force microscope to be composed of double-stranded DNA with a tiny gap in the form of a short single-stranded fragment. Altering the nature of the single-strand fragment offers a way to design nanorings with specific functionality.