Structural DNA Nanotechnology: State of the Art and Future Perspective

Abstract

Over the past three decades DNA has emerged as an exceptional molecular building block for nanoconstruction due to its predictable conformation and programmable intra- and intermolecular Watson–Crick base-pairing interactions. A variety of convenient design rules and reliable assembly methods have been developed to engineer DNA nanostructures of increasing complexity. The ability to create designer DNA architectures with accurate spatial control has allowed researchers to explore novel applications in many directions, such as directed material assembly, structural biology, biocatalysis, DNA computing, nanorobotics, disease diagnosis, and drug delivery. This Perspective discusses the state of the art in the field of structural DNA nanotechnology and presents some of the challenges and opportunities that exist in DNA-based molecular design and programming.

Coordination of the electrical and optical signals revealing nanochannels with an ‘onion-like’ gating mechanism and its sensing application

“…2 Most ion channels are not permanently open; rather, they can be selectively opened and closed in response to extracellular signals, allowing the cell to control the movements of ions across the membrane, thus serving as 'smart' gates that regulate the internal environment. In recent years, researchers have made efforts to develop bioinspired smart nanochannels that mimic the function of gating property of biological ion channels for use in various applications, such as biosensors, 3-10 nanofluidic devices [11][12][13][14] and molecular filtration. 15,16 Monitoring the ionic current across a nanochannel is the conventional investigation method used to decode the properties of research subjects, such as size, structure, conformation and dynamic motion.…”

Protein Coating of DNA Nanostructures for Enhanced Stability and Immunocompatibility

“…[1,2] After the invention of DNA origami in 2006, [3] the whole research field has grown exponentially. [2,4] Today there are numerous ways to build discrete user-defined, accurate, and fully addressable DNA nanostructures, such as scaffolded 2D and 3D origami [3,5,6] with twists, curves, and bends, [7,8] Lego-like objects formed from molecular canvases, [9] and wireframe-based meshed constructions. [10][11][12] The computational tools [11][12][13] for designing such objects have emerged along with these techniques, and this progress has opened up new possibilities for the researchers to effortlessly build their own nanostructures for tailored uses.…”

Supramolecular Wireframe DNA Polyhedra: Assembly and Applications

“…After a fruitful development of almost three decades, DNA nanotechnology has been dramatically expanded to enable many unprecedented possibilities in fundamental scientific research and technical developments. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Besides the macroscopic DNA crystal which was reported in 2009 based on a DNA tensegrity triangle motif, [12] a variety of 1D, 2D and 3D DNA nanostructures have been built with precise, structural controls through multi-arm tile (n-point-star) assembly, [13,14] scaffolded DNA origami, [15] and single-stranded tile (SST) assembly. [16] Among various self-assembled DNA nano-objects (DNA supramolecular complexes) available so far, an enclosed structure in the form of a wireframe polyhedron is interesting due to various possible applications.…”