Blog – Page 2 – DNA-Robotics

The perspective for nano-sized DNA robots

Posted by oamon 29/11/202128/06/2022in Aitor Diaz, Alba Monferrer, Angel Santorelli, Igor Bars, Joakim Bohlin, Karol Kolataj, Lorena Baranda, Marco Lolaico, Michael Pinner, Mihir Dass, Minke Nijenhuis, Nestor Sampedro, Online Lectures, Publications, Quentin Vicentini, Rafa Carrascosa, Uncategorized, Yash BogawatLeave a comment

This articles aims to explain the basic concepts, perspectives and the main ethical considerations regarding the concept of DNA nano-robots. This outreach paper has been written with equal contributions from all the DNA-Robotics Early stage researches. Authors are listed in random order:

Quentin Vincentini, Lorena Baranda Pellejero, Aitor Patiño Díaz, Alba Monferrer i Sureda, Michael Pinner, Yash Bogawat, Minke Nijenhuis, Angel Santorelli, Nestor Sampedro, Marco Llocaico, Igor Baars, Mihir Dass, Karol Kolataj, Joakim Bohlin, Rafael Carrascosa Marzo.

The death of the author

Posted by oamon 24/08/202124/08/2021in Blog, Minke NijenhuisLeave a comment

“A text’s unity lies not in its origin, but in its destination.” – Roland Barthes (1967, translated 1977)

I am in the middle of writing my PhD thesis. This is generally not considered an easy process, and I concur with that sentiment. For me, it includes stretches of intense productivity, digging for long-forgotten data, and dry eyes. There are also long periods of staring out of the window, while stewing on my thoughts. In one such stewing session, my thoughts wandered towards the quote above. It is from the essay “The Death of the Author” by Roland Barthes. Barthes disapproved of the idea that to find the true meaning of a text, one must consider it through the identity of its scripter. Instead, he argued that meaning lies exclusively in the words themselves, and their impressions on the reader. Thus, the unity of a text is not found in its origin, but in its destination. As Barthes wrote himself, “writing is that into which every subject escapes, the trap where all identity is lost, beginning with the very identity of the body that writes.”¹ “The author enters into their own death, and writing begins.”²

DNA nanotechnologies: ideal tools for theranostics?

Posted by oamon 15/07/2021in Online Lectures, Quentin Vicentini, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Theranostics is an emerging field that combines the power of diagnostics and therapeutic at the same time. The idea is not completely new, Nuclear Medicine has been using for example radioactive iodine to both image and treat certain types of thyroidal diseases (1), but nanotechnologies have the potential to generate highly controllable systems and expand the therapeutic arsenal of clinicians.

The branching path in the life of a PhD

Posted by oamon 07/07/202107/07/2021in Blog, Rafa CarrascosaLeave a comment

As we approach the delineated end of this common venture that the ITN network was, all the students involved are starting to work towards the final stretches. Among the issues that require our attention in these coming days, a serious one that has been hanging over me like the proverbial Damocles sword is, and then what?

Linear actuators made from DNA

Posted by oamon 05/07/202105/07/2021in Publications, Rafa CarrascosaLeave a comment

In this article we show two different approaches to produce linear actuators made from DNA

In all levels of engineering, complex machinery is based on the concerted activity of many different subunits of heterogeneous nature. One of such subunits are the linear actuators we refer to in the title. Basically, a linear actuator is a device or construct capable of producing a motion confined in one axis; this type of devices, as they are currently found in mechanisms and machines, can be as large as the ones found in the hydraulic arm of an excavator or as precise as the piezoelectric actuators capable of movements in the nanometer range.