A new DNA computing model for the NAND gate based on induced hairpin formation

Hairpin structure of DNA molecules has been widely employed in a variety of biosensors and in nanoscale molecular assembly applications. For example, the well known molecular beacons can report the presence of specific nucleic acids in homogeneous solutions with high accuracy. Recently, Smith et al. proposed the induction of hairpin formation through sequence-specific binding of a small-molecule ligand to a G-G mismatch. Not only did this method offer great flexibility in controlling hairpin formation, more importantly the induced hairpin maintains high degree of sensitivity toward specific hybridization. In this contribution, we present a theoretical model for the logical NAND gate based on induced hairpin formation.