OnJune3, 2020, Prof. Lei Zheng & Prof.Hao Qu’s lab at Hefei University of Technology published a paper inJournal of the American Chemical Societytitled “Measuring Aptamer Folding Energy Using a Molecular Clamp”. Folding energy (ΔG_fold) offers a useful metric for characterizing the stability and function of aptamers. However, experimentally measuring the folding energy is challenging, and there is currently no general technique to measure this parameter directly. In this work, the authors present a simple approach for measuring aptamer folding energy. First, the aptamer is stretched under equilibrium conditions with a double-stranded DNA “molecular clamp” that is coupled to the aptamer ends. The total internal energy of stressed DNA molecules is then measured using time-lapse gel electrophoresis and the folding and unfolding behavior of molecular clamp-stressed molecules that incorporate either the aptamer or unstructured random single-stranded DNA is compared in order to derive the aptamer folding energy. Using this approach, the authors measured a folding energy of 10.40 kJ/mol for the HD22 thrombin aptamer, which is consistent with other predictions and estimates. The proposed strategy in this work offers an accessible and generalizable approach for obtaining such measurements with virtually any aptamer.