DNA Nanotechnology Enhanced Single-Molecule Biosensing and Imaging

Abstract Single-molecule tools enable translating biorecognition events into electrical and optical signals at the single-molecule level. However, the limitations such as poor specificity, low signal-to-noise, low throughput, and lack of proper molecular receptors between analyte and instrument still hamper the development of single-molecule sensing and imaging. DNA nanotechnology harnesses DNA as a building block, making use of programmable base-pairing to assemble strands into complex shapes, or to orchestrate chemical reaction networks. The involvement of DNA nanotechnology in single-molecule tools not only improves the sensitivity and specificity but also provides molecular receptors and rulers in certain applications such as nanopore sensing, mechanochemical sensing, and super-resolution imaging. This review outlines the progress toward DNA nanotechnology and discusses how DNA nanotechnology enhances single-molecule sensing and imaging to address the above-mentioned challenges.