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Updated: Mar 2, 2026

Preparation of DNA-crosslinked Polyacrylamide Hydrogels
Published on: August 27, 2014
Unzipping and shearing DNA with electrophoresed nanoparticles in hydrogels
Keitel Cervantes-Salguero1, Ibuki Kawamata, Shin-Ichiro M Nomura
1Department of Robotics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-1 Aobayama, Sendai 980-8579, Japan. cervantes@molbot.mech.tohoku.jp murata@molbot.mech.tohoku.jp.
Abstract:
We show electric control of unzipping and shearing dehybridization of a DNA duplex anchored to a hydrogel. Tensile force is applied by electrophoresing (25 V cm-1) gold nanoparticles pulling the DNA duplex. The pulled DNA strand is gradually released from the hydrogel. The unzipping release rate is faster than shearing; for example, 3-fold for a 15 base pair duplex, which helps to design electrically driven DNA devices.
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