Home > Press > 'Origami' is reshaping DNA's future: Three leading researchers discuss how DNA may be used as a building material to help us develop a new generation of medicines, build electronic devices and probe the mysteries of proteins
While the design certainly elicited some chuckles, Paul Rothemund’s DNA orgami method, introduced 10 years ago, gave researchers a fast and powerful way to shape DNA into useful structures. Credit: Paul Rothemund |
Abstract:
Ten years after its introduction, DNA origami, a fast and simple way to assemble DNA into potentially useful structures, is finally coming into its own.
In a recent paper in Journal of the American Chemical Society, a team of researchers used the technique to program DNA to form large, two-dimensional honeycombs and tubes. Because those structures are assembled biologically, rather than by conventional chemical reactions, they have very precise and repeatable structures. The researchers programmed those structures to hold gold nanoparticles in arrangements that gave them unusual optical properties.
This is just one of many potential applications for DNA origami, which uses short, easily synthesized strands of DNA to "staple" long DNA strands into complex structures.
In a roundtable, The Kavli Foundation brought together three pioneers in the field to discuss the technique's potential. They included one of the paper's co-authors, William Shih, an associate professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and Cancer Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
In addition to using DNA origami to create optical devices, Shih is interested in using it to make new types of medicines. Existing drugs, he notes, are usually small molecules that "gum up the works of some process." Instead, he envisions exposing the immune system to DNA origami scaffolds that are holding pieces of virus. These complexes would "teach" the body to recognize the virus and develop antibodies to it before a live virus attacks.
"If we want to rival the immune system in effectiveness, we must rival it in complexity," Shih said in the roundtable discussion.
Other medicines might take advantage of the arrangement of proteins on cell surfaces, added Paul Rothemund, who received a MacArthur Fellowship for inventing DNA origami 10 years ago, and was one of the three participants. He is a research professor and faculty member at the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at the California Institute of Technology.
Antibodies, Rothemund argued, bind with invading molecules in atomically precise ways to neutralize them. Many researchers believe large-scale patterns of proteins on antibody surfaces control this behavior.
"DNA origami could allow us to arrange proteins in ways that give us access to the language of the immune system. This might make very sophisticated medicines possible," said Rothemund.
Rothemund also sees potential for DNA origami to integrate optically and electronically active molecules with semiconductors. Chemists already know how to synthesize single molecules that act like transistors or diodes. DNA origami could give them a way to organize those molecules into larger systems where they could interact with one another to perform computations.
"Paul [Rothemund] and I often try to compare computing with our field, which, if you think about it, involves programming biomolecules to self-assemble into whatever we want," said Shawn Douglas, an assistant professor of Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology in the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. "We believe programmed biomolecules are going to be just as transformative."
One of Douglas' research interests is immobilizing proteins in DNA origami cages in order to take portraits of them using a technique called cryoelectron microscopy. This would free chemists from having to crystallize proteins, a process that is time-consuming and often fails, to understand their structure.
Douglas is also helping to move DNA programming forward in other ways. He developed caDNAno software, which enables researchers to design complex DNA origami structures. He also leads BIOMOD, an international biomolecular design competition for college students.
"If we can build out the biology the way we built out electronics, we can create all these amazing and useful things," Douglas said.
Rothemund agreed: For a long time, he says, scientists treated nature's designs as sacred, and believed that we could never fruitfully modify them.
"Today, there is a new spirit about engineering these systems, and we have tools that make these modifications easier than ever" he said. "So instead of merely studying a system, 20-year-olds are saying, 'Let's do something to make it more useful.'"
####
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Jim Cohen
805-278-7495
Copyright © The Kavli Foundation
If you have a comment, please Contact us.Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Related Links |
Related News Press |
News and information
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
2 Dimensional Materials
NRL discovers two-dimensional waveguides February 16th, 2024
'Sudden death' of quantum fluctuations defies current theories of superconductivity: Study challenges the conventional wisdom of superconducting quantum transitions January 12th, 2024
Organic Electronics
Flexing the power of a conductive polymer: A new material holds promise for the next generation of organic electronics June 24th, 2022
Software
Visualizing nanoscale structures in real time: Open-source software enables researchers to see materials in 3D while they're still on the electron microscope August 19th, 2022
Luisier wins SNSF Advanced Grant to develop simulation tools for nanoscale devices July 8th, 2022
Possible Futures
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
With VECSELs towards the quantum internet Fraunhofer: IAF achieves record output power with VECSEL for quantum frequency converters April 5th, 2024
Molecular Nanotechnology
Scientists push the boundaries of manipulating light at the submicroscopic level March 3rd, 2023
First electric nanomotor made from DNA material: Synthetic rotary motors at the nanoscale perform mechanical work July 22nd, 2022
Nanotech scientists create world's smallest origami bird March 17th, 2021
Chip Technology
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Utilizing palladium for addressing contact issues of buried oxide thin film transistors April 5th, 2024
HKUST researchers develop new integration technique for efficient coupling of III-V and silicon February 16th, 2024
Nanomedicine
New micromaterial releases nanoparticles that selectively destroy cancer cells April 5th, 2024
Good as gold - improving infectious disease testing with gold nanoparticles April 5th, 2024
Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024
Discoveries
Chemical reactions can scramble quantum information as well as black holes April 5th, 2024
New micromaterial releases nanoparticles that selectively destroy cancer cells April 5th, 2024
Utilizing palladium for addressing contact issues of buried oxide thin film transistors April 5th, 2024
Announcements
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Nanobiotechnology
New micromaterial releases nanoparticles that selectively destroy cancer cells April 5th, 2024
Good as gold - improving infectious disease testing with gold nanoparticles April 5th, 2024
Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024
The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
Premium Products | ||
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||