MIT researchers have developed a technique that prints DNA from one substrate — for example glass, gold or silicon — onto another. Using a print template, they can produce mirror-image copies in just a simple few steps, offering the rapid transfer of a large amount of information and allow for low-cost DNA analysis.

The technique, called “supramolecular nano-stamping” (SuNS), could be used to produce many other kinds of nano-devices: materials, both organic and inorganic, can be made to assemble along a pattern composed of DNA strands to generate transistors, for example.