Programmed self-assembly of complex DNA nanostructures
Abstract
DNA has served as an excellent building block to self-assemble into a wide range of one-dimensional (1D), two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) structures with the bottom-up method. Due to the specificity of base pairing, the DNA assembly system is predictable and robust. These DNA structures with higher diversity and complexity have potential applications as templates to organize guest molecules or nanoparticles for the nanofabrication, as biosensors for the genetic diagnosis and environmental detection, and as nanocarriers to deliver and release drugs for the therapy. My major researches focus on designing a novel building block and assembly strategies to self-assemble DNA into complex nanostructures to increase the diversity and complexity. A novel building block was first constructed, which is a parallel, left-handed DNA helix containing multiple domains of half-turn-long standard B-DNA. Such a structure can be used to introduce left-handed crossings in order to increase the diversity and complexity of DNA nanostructures, and can be taken into consideration when predicting the secondary structure of DNA/RNA molecules in cells. In addition, a tile-based directed self-assembly strategy was developed to construct DNA nanocages. In this strategy, directing building blocks were employed to control the self-assembly process of assembly building blocks. This strategy greatly expands the scope of accessible DNA nanostructures and would facilitate technological applications such as nano-guest encapsulation, drug delivery, and nanoparticle organization. As the complexity of DNA nanostructures increases, more errors might be involved in the assembly process. Therefore, a simplified design system based on T-junction was designed to build DNA arrays and minimize the assembly errors. In such system, due to the sequence symmetry, only one DNA single strand is employed and assembled into predesigned 1D and 2D arrays. This design system can be applied to assemble a wide range of DNA nanostructures with varieties of features.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Mao, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Analytical chemistry|Biochemistry|Nanotechnology|Biophysics
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