Researchers at Harvard University have developed a semiconductor chip that can synthesize 64 different DNA sequences in parallel using electric currents and a water-based enzymatic process, potentially offering an alternative to conventional DNA manufacturing methods.
The chip uses localized electrical control to trigger DNA synthesis at selected sites on its surface. The team says the approach avoids the solvent-heavy phosphoramidite chemistry widely used to produce synthetic DNA today.
Synthetic DNA is a key tool in modern biotechnology, supporting applications ranging from diagnostics and genome engineering to cancer research. While enzymatic DNA synthesis has emerged as a more environmentally friendly alternative, it has struggled to match the scale of conventional methods.
According to the researchers, enzymatic approaches have so far been limited to producing about a dozen DNA sequences simultaneously. In the new study, the chip generated 64 distinct DNA sequences in parallel, with each sequence reaching up to 39 nucleotides in length.
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