Nanorobots powered by designed DNA molecular motors on DNA origami platforms are vigorously pursued but still short of autonomous and sustainable operation. We develop such an integrated DNA motor-origami system in which a new translational molecular motor unidirectionally circulates a self-closed circular track on a triangle DNA origami. The motor is highly directional and attains a record-high speed among the autonomous artificial molecular motors reported to date. This DNA motor-origami system, with its complex translational-rotational motion and big nanorobotic capacity, potentially offers a self-contained “seed” nanorobotic platform to automate or scale up many applications.

Authors: Winna Siti, Hon Lin Too, Tommy Anderson, Xiao Rui Liu, Iong Ying Loh, Zhisong Wang