We are developing photonic DNA nano machines, which consist of DNA and are controlled through photonic signals. The photonic DNA nanomachines are applicable to control nanoscale structures and to manipulate nanoscale materials including biomolecules. Photonic control is important in making remote, local, and spatially parallel operations. As an demonstration, we demonstrated DNA tweezers that can be controlled through photoisomerization of azobenzenes induced by light irradiation.[1-4]

1. Takahiro Nishimura, Yusuke Ogura, and Jun Tanida, ``Enhancing the Performance of Photonic DNA Nanomachines for Implementing Photonic Nanoscale Automaton,'' In Proceedings of SPIE NanoScience and Engineering 2009, 7402, 740203, August 2009. (San Diego)
2. Yusuke Ogura, Takahiro Nishimura, and Jun Tanida, "Self-Contained Photonically-Controlled DNA Tweezers," Applied Physics Express, 2, 025004 (2009).
3. Yusuke Ogura, Takahiro Nishimura, Yuichiro Horiguchi, and Jun Tanida, "Concept and Primal Implementation of Photonic Nanoscale Automaton," In Technical digest of International Topical Meeting on Information Photonics 2008, pp. 32-33, November 2008.
4. Yusuke Ogura, Takahiro Nishimura, and Jun Tanida, ``State-Transition of Dna Nanomachines Based on Photonic Control,'' In Proceedings of SPIE, 7039, 70390K, September 2008.