Molecular machines measure the nanomechanics of biological membranes

DNA-engineered molecular machines indent lipid bilayers at the nanoscale and convert indentation into optical readouts, enabling parallel measurement of membrane elasticity.

• Why it matters: Elastic resistance to distortion governs biological membrane behavior and disease progression, but existing indentation tools are too large and slow for high-throughput nanomechanical mapping.
• What they did: The team miniaturized indentation by 8 orders of magnitude using DNA nanotechnology to autonomously bind membranes, actively indent localized patches, and read out elastic response optically.
• The result: Millions of machines can run in parallel, and in cells they detect softer inner membrane compartments versus stiffer cytoplasmic membranes using indentation depths up to 1 nm.

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