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Controlled motion at the nanoscale can be achieved by using Watson-Crick base-pairing to direct the assembly and operation of a molecular transport system consisting of a track, a motor and fuel, all made from DNA. Here, we assemble a 100-nm-long DNA track on a two-dimensional scaffold, and show that a DNA motor loaded at one end of the track moves autonomously and at a constant average speed along the full length of the track, a journey comprising 16 consecutive steps for the motor. Real-time atomic force microscopy allows direct observation of individual steps of a single motor, revealing mechanistic details of its operation. This precisely controlled, long-range transport could lead to the development of systems that could be programmed and routed by instructions encoded in the nucleotide sequences of the track and motor. Such systems might be used to create molecular assembly lines modelled on the ribosome.

Seamless and minimally invasive three-dimensional interpenetration of electronics within artificial or natural structures could allow for continuous monitoring and manipulation of their properties. Flexible electronics provide a means for conforming electronics to non-planar surfaces, yet targeted delivery of flexible electronics to internal regions remains difficult. Here, we overcome this challenge by demonstrating the syringe injection (and subsequent unfolding) of sub-micrometre-thick, centimetre-scale macroporous mesh electronics through needles with a diameter as small as 100 μm. Our results show that electronic components can be injected into man-made and biological cavities, as well as dense gels and tissue, with >90% device yield. We demonstrate several applications of syringe-injectable electronics as a general approach for interpenetrating flexible electronics with three-dimensional structures, including (1) monitoring internal mechanical strains in polymer cavities, (2) tight integration and low chronic immunoreactivity with several distinct regions of the brain, and (3) in vivo multiplexed neural recording. Moreover, syringe injection enables the delivery of flexible electronics through a rigid shell, the delivery of large-volume flexible electronics that can fill internal cavities, and co-injection of electronics with other materials into host structures, opening up unique applications for flexible electronics. Rolled-up ultraflexible mesh electronics can be injected through a syringe needle of diameter as small as 100 μm into man-made and biological cavities, gels and tissues, where they can unfold and perform sensing operations.

This article reviews the use of graphene nanodevices for DNA sequencing, highlighting the potential of approaches that involve DNA molecules passing through graphene nanopores, nanogaps, and nanoribbons, or the physisorption of DNA on graphene nanostructures. Fast, cheap, and reliable DNA sequencing could be one of the most disruptive innovations of this decade, as it will pave the way for personalized medicine. In pursuit of such technology, a variety of nanotechnology-based approaches have been explored and established, including sequencing with nanopores. Owing to its unique structure and properties, graphene provides interesting opportunities for the development of a new sequencing technology. In recent years, a wide range of creative ideas for graphene sequencers have been theoretically proposed and the first experimental demonstrations have begun to appear. Here, we review the different approaches to using graphene nanodevices for DNA sequencing, which involve DNA passing through graphene nanopores, nanogaps, and nanoribbons, and the physisorption of DNA on graphene nanostructures. We discuss the advantages and problems of each of these key techniques, and provide a perspective on the use of graphene in future DNA sequencing technology.

Spatial light modulators are essential optical elements in applications that require the ability to regulate the amplitude, phase and polarization of light, such as digital holography, optical communications and biomedical imaging. With the push towards miniaturization of optical components, static metasurfaces are used as competent alternatives. These evolved to active metasurfaces in which light-wavefront manipulation can be done in a time-dependent fashion. The active metasurfaces reported so far, however, still show incomplete phase modulation (below 360°). Here we present an all-solid-state, electrically tunable and reflective metasurface array that can generate a specific phase or a continuous sweep between 0 and 360° at an estimated rate of 5.4 MHz while independently adjusting the amplitude. The metasurface features 550 individually addressable nanoresonators in a 250 × 250 μm2 area with no micromechanical elements or liquid crystals. A key feature of our design is the presence of two independent control parameters (top and bottom gate voltages) in each nanoresonator, which are used to adjust the real and imaginary parts of the reflection coefficient independently. To demonstrate this array’s use in light detection and ranging, we performed a three-dimensional depth scan of an emulated street scene that consisted of a model car and a human figure up to a distance of 4.7 m.By controlling two voltage gates separately from one another, a spatial light modulator has been made that can continuously vary the phase of 360 degrees while independently adjusting the amplitude.

This Review summarizes the developments in Cerenkov imaging and highlights how advances in nanotechnology and materials science have opened new avenues for basic and applied sciences using Cerenkov luminescence. The characteristic blue glow of Cerenkov luminescence (CL) arises from the interaction between a charged particle travelling faster than the phase velocity of light and a dielectric medium, such as water or tissue. As CL emanates from a variety of sources, such as cosmic events, particle accelerators, nuclear reactors and clinical radionuclides, it has been used in applications such as particle detection, dosimetry, and medical imaging and therapy. The combination of CL and nanoparticles for biomedicine has improved diagnosis and therapy, especially in oncological research. Although radioactive decay itself cannot be easily modulated, the associated CL can be through the use of nanoparticles, thus offering new applications in biomedical research. Advances in nanoparticles, metamaterials and photonic crystals have also yielded new behaviours of CL. Here, we review the physics behind Cerenkov luminescence and associated applications in biomedicine. We also show that by combining advances in nanotechnology and materials science with CL, new avenues for basic and applied sciences have opened.

Wearable systems that monitor muscle activity, store data and deliver feedback therapy are the next frontier in personalized medicine and healthcare. However, technical challenges, such as the fabrication of high-performance, energy-efficient sensors and memory modules that are in intimate mechanical contact with soft tissues, in conjunction with controlled delivery of therapeutic agents, limit the wide-scale adoption of such systems. Here, we describe materials, mechanics and designs for multifunctional, wearable-on-the-skin systems that address these challenges via monolithic integration of nanomembranes fabricated with a top-down approach, nanoparticles assembled by bottom-up methods, and stretchable electronics on a tissue-like polymeric substrate. Representative examples of such systems include physiological sensors, non-volatile memory and drug-release actuators. Quantitative analyses of the electronics, mechanics, heat-transfer and drug-diffusion characteristics validate the operation of individual components, thereby enabling system-level multifunctionalities. Integration of diverse nanostructures allows the fabrication of a wearable system capable of storing data, performing diagnostics and delivering drugs.

Fluorescent nanothermometers can probe changes in local temperature in living cells and in vivo and reveal fundamental insights into biological properties. This field has attracted global efforts in developing both temperature-responsive materials and detection procedures to achieve sub-degree temperature resolution in biosystems. Recent generations of nanothermometers show superior performance to earlier ones and also offer multifunctionality, enabling state-of-the-art functional imaging with improved spatial, temporal and temperature resolutions for monitoring the metabolism of intracellular organelles and internal organs. Although progress in this field has been rapid, it has not been without controversy, as recent studies have shown possible biased sensing during fluorescence-based detection. Here, we introduce the design principles and advances in fluorescence nanothermometry, highlight application achievements, discuss scenarios that may lead to biased sensing, analyze the challenges ahead in terms of both fundamental issues and practical implementations, and point to new directions for improving this interdisciplinary field. This Review on nanothermometry introduces the many types of nanothermometers and their cellular and in vivo applications, as well as best practices for accurate measurements.

The nitrogen-vacancy defect centre in diamond 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 has potential applications in nanoscale electric and magnetic-field sensing 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , single-photon microscopy 7 , 8 , quantum information processing 9 and bioimaging 10 . These applications rely on the ability to position a single nitrogen-vacancy centre within a few nanometres of a sample, and then scan it across the sample surface, while preserving the centre's spin coherence and readout fidelity. However, existing scanning techniques, which use a single diamond nanocrystal grafted onto the tip of a scanning probe microscope 2 , 8 , 11 , 12 , suffer from short spin coherence times due to poor crystal quality, and from inefficient far-field collection of the fluorescence from the nitrogen-vacancy centre. Here, we demonstrate a robust method for scanning a single nitrogen-vacancy centre within tens of nanometres from a sample surface that addresses both of these concerns. This is achieved by positioning a single nitrogen-vacancy centre at the end of a high-purity diamond nanopillar, which we use as the tip of an atomic force microscope. Our approach ensures long nitrogen-vacancy spin coherence times (∼75 µs), enhanced nitrogen-vacancy collection efficiencies due to waveguiding, and mechanical robustness of the device (several weeks of scanning time). We are able to image magnetic domains with widths of 25 nm, and demonstrate a magnetic field sensitivity of 56 nT Hz –1/2 at a frequency of 33 kHz, which is unprecedented for scanning nitrogen-vacancy centres. Magnetic fields are imaged with nanoscale resolution and high sensitivity using nitrogen-vacancy centres embedded in high-purity diamond nanopillars.

With the ultimate aim to construct a living cell, bottom-up synthetic biology strives to reconstitute cellular phenomena in vitro – disentangled from the complex environment of a cell. Recent work towards this ambitious goal has provided new insights into the mechanisms governing life. With the fast-growing library of functional modules for synthetic cells, their classification and integration become increasingly important. We discuss strategies to reverse-engineer and recombine functional parts for synthetic eukaryotes, mimicking the characteristics of nature’s own prototype. Particularly, we focus on large outer compartments, complex endomembrane systems with organelles, and versatile cytoskeletons as hallmarks of eukaryotic life. Moreover, we identify microfluidics and DNA nanotechnology as two technologies that can integrate these functional modules into sophisticated multifunctional synthetic cells. Bottom-up synthetic biology thrives in reverse-engineering a particular biological function using a minimal set of molecular components, like purified proteins. Recently, precision technologies, like microfluidics, have been used to recombine functional modules towards multifunctional synthetic cells. Synthetic biology can capitalize on a variety of pre-existing on-chip functions, which greatly increases the scope for complexity in the field. Advances in DNA nanotechnology gave rise to a diverse range of fully synthetic functional modules, like DNA-based ion channels or motors, which can replace some protein-based parts. Noteworthy progress has been made in achieving large and stable compartments, organelle-like multicompartment systems, and sophisticated cytoskeletal structures.

A molecular positioning device made from DNA origami can adjust the average distance between fluorescent molecules and reactive groups in steps as small as 0.04 nm. Molecular self-assembly with nucleic acids can be used to fabricate discrete objects with defined sizes and arbitrary shapes 1 , 2 . It relies on building blocks that are commensurate to those of biological macromolecular machines and should therefore be capable of delivering the atomic-scale placement accuracy known today only from natural and designed proteins 3 , 4 . However, research in the field has predominantly focused on producing increasingly large and complex, but more coarsely defined, objects 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 and placing them in an orderly manner on solid substrates 11 , 12 . So far, few objects afford a design accuracy better than 5 nm 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , and the subnanometre scale has been reached only within the unit cells of designed DNA crystals 17 . Here, we report a molecular positioning device made from a hinged DNA origami object in which the angle between the two structural units can be controlled with adjuster helices. To test the positioning capabilities of the device, we used photophysical and crosslinking assays that report the coordinate of interest directly with atomic resolution. Using this combination of placement and analysis, we rationally adjusted the average distance between fluorescent molecules and reactive groups from 1.5 to 9 nm in 123 discrete displacement steps. The smallest displacement step possible was 0.04 nm, which is slightly less than the Bohr radius. The fluctuation amplitudes in the distance coordinate were also small (±0.5 nm), and within a factor of two to three of the amplitudes found in protein structures 18 .