Silver nanoparticles fix a major DNA assembly bottleneck for gene therapy and cancer vaccine research
A Nagoya University team used silver nanoparticles to cut and join DNA more precisely than standard enzymes, raising DNA recovery from 14 percent to 98 percent and doubling joining efficiency. They confirmed it works by building a gene inside human cells.
Researchers at Nagoya University, working with Gifu University, developed a silver nanoparticle method that solves a long-standing bottleneck in DNA assembly. The technique raised DNA recovery from 14 percent to 98 percent and produced sticky ends up to eight bases long, nearly doubling joining efficiency versus standard restriction enzymes. The team confirmed the method works by assembling a gene for green fluorescent protein and expressing it inside human cells. Published in Nucleic Acids Research, the approach could speed up how labs build gene therapies, cancer vaccine platforms, and engineered crops.