DNA, the stuff of life, may very well also pack quite the jolt for engineers trying to advance the development of tiny, low-cost electronic devices.

Much like flipping a light switch at home—only on a scale 1,000 times smaller than a human hair—a team of researchers has now developed the first controllable DNA switch to regulate the flow of electricity within a single, atomic-sized molecule. The new study, led by  Fulton Schools ECEE professor and director of the Biodesign Institute’s Bioelectronics and Biosensors Nongjian Tao, is published in the online journal Nature Communications.