The knowledge evolution of DNA Nanoscience and DNA Nanotechnology: similarities, complementarities and differences

What drives the frontier of new knowledge development: scientific research, technological development, or the interaction between both? And how can firms, knowledge institutes and policy makers optimize knowledge development and their own contribution? These are among the questions frequently addressed by scholars in innovation sciences, but there are still considerable gaps in that knowledge. Using the field of DNA Nanoscience and DNA Nanotechnology as a case study, this study examines the above questions be investigating scientific progress, reflected by academic papers, and technological progress, reflected by patents. Using a novel method called the concept approach, we built databases and networks for both domains. After analyzing the overall knowledge structure with main thrusts in each domain and we found that most of the sub-domains, including ‘Functionalization’, but excepting ‘DNA computing’, demonstrate strong signals of co-evolution.