Fabrication and Application of DNA Nanostructures

"In the field of structural DNA nanotechnology, researchers create artificial DNA sequences to self-assemble into target molecular superstructures and nanostructures. The well-understood WatsonCrick base-pairing rules are used to encode assembly instructions directly into the DNA molecules. DNA molecules provide basic building blocks for constructing functionalized nanostructures with two major features: self-assembly and self-alignment. In this talk, we present on self-assembled DNA nanostructures and their applications. 1D and 2D periodically patterned nanostructures utilizing several distinct DNA motifs such as cross tiles, double crossover tiles as well as single-stranded tiles will be discussed with unique design schemes and characteristics. We have demonstrated fabrication of size-controllable, fully addressable, and precisely programmable DNA-based nanostructures. Especially in construction of working devices, properly designed DNA lattices can serve as a controllable and programmable scaffold for organizing nanomaterials such as protein or nanoparticles. DNA-templated metallic nanowires using a chemical deposition method might be a good example.
Finally we discuss electrical and optical measurements through modified DNA nanostructures and propose possibilities of the construction of physical devices and biological/chemical sensors based on artificial DNA nanostructures."