THIS GRANT IS A CONTINUATION OF N0014-14-1-0610 Scaling up complexity of DNA brick structures
Abstract
DNA is viewed as a promising material for engineering sophisticated nanodevices, due to its chemical stability and programmable base-paired structure. Researchers have used DNA nanostructures to direct the spatial arrangement of functional molecules such as inorganic materials or proteins, facilitate NMR protein structure determination, develop bioimaging probes, study single-molecule biophysics, and modulate biosynthetic and cell-signaling pathways. The aim of the proposed research is to develop a novel stepwise assembly approach for constructing highly complex two- and three-dimensional DNA nanostructures (e.g. gigadalton rather than current megadalton discrete structures) called “DNA Printer”. In “DNA Printer”, sets of short single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides (i.e. “DNA ink”) will be added sequentially into a reaction solution to control the assembly process of DNA structures layer by layer. The procedure is envisioned to have a number of advantages over other DNA nanostructure construction methods. First, it is expected to enable the construction of large and complex structures using a limited number of single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides, since each set of DNA oligonucleotides can be used repeatedly within a single structure, as opposed to current methods where each building block is unique within a structure. Additionally, the method has the potential to reduce the number of mismatches that occur in a DNA nanostructure and increase the construction yield in a reaction, since the number of unique single stranded DNA oligonucleotides used in the process will be much lower than in the current dominant one-pot annealing reaction approach. The construction process should also be more controllable, since it is a combination of molecular self-assembly and externally controlled assembly where stepwise injection of sets of DNA bricks will control the species present in a reaction solution. Finally, DNA printing should provide the opportunity to decorate DNA structures with different functional groups at each layer (e.g. gold nanoparticles).
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 03, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141612182
Entities
People
- Peng Yin
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- President and Fellows of Harvard College
- United States Navy