Could you explain the significance of your article to the non-specialist?

To fulfill its biological role, DNA must strike the correct balance between stability, which is needed to preserve genetic information, and flexibility, which is needed to allow facile interaction with diverse binding partners.  This work has shown that over short distances, DNA can be very flexible and dynamic over many time scales.  Moreover, this flexibility is determined as much by the local environment of the DNA as by the intrinsic structure of the DNA itself.

What has motivated you to conduct this work?

Biology is replete with systems that must be understood from a nanoscale perspective. DNA is one of the most important of these nano-biological systems.  This work is pioneering the direct  measurement of the properties of nano-biological systems over the short times and lengths where unusual properties are expected.  The results will not only help us to understand biological systems, they will also help us to adapt biology to the design of artificial nano-systems.

Where do you see this work developing in the future?

We find that water and ions both change the properties of DNA and are changed by DNA. Similar issues are being recognized in other biological systems such as proteins and membranes and in nonbiological systems, where water is confined to nanoscopic pores or sheets. In the future, a picture of how water changes when it interacts with nanoscale structures may unify phenomena seen in all these different materials.

Are there any particular challenges facing future research in this area?

Measurements on the nanoscale are always subject to perturbations caused by the probe used. Further advances in chemical synthesis and spectroscopic methods should yield a greater variety of more finely tuned and less perturbing probes.