Programmed DNA self-assembly and the applications

DNA nanotechnology is a rapidly evolving research area that utilizes DNA as unique construction materials instead of genetic information carriers. One significant branch of DNA nanotechnology is to construct well defined static nanostructures from rationally designed DNA motifs. The diversity and complexity of such DNA nanostructures endow them with promising applications in nanofabrications, nanoelectronics, diagnostics, and molecular computations. My major research topics focus on developing novel DNA motifs and studying their programmed self-assembly. Engineering DNA two-dimensional (2D) crystals is one of the central goals in structural DNA nanotechnology and has been actively explored since 1998. During my Ph.D research, we developed a novel strategy of “sequence symmetry” for designing DNA nanostructures. Based on this strategy, a series of symmetric DNA star motifs were successfully engineered which can readily self-assemble into periodic large 2D crystals with different symmetries. The as-prepared DNA 2D crystals can be used as structural masks to fabricate desired nanoscale patterns onto metallic/semiconducting material surfaces. In addition, using DNA nanostructures as scaffolds to organize biomacromolecules and grow inorganic nanomaterials were also demonstrated. Besides DNA 2D crystals, we recently synthesized a number of well-defined DNA 3D nano-objects, such as DNA tetrahedron, dodecahedron, and truncated icosahedron. In each case, only three synthetic short DNA strands are required and the assembly process is remarkably simple. The resulting 3D nanostructures could potentially be used in many applications, including serving as encapsulation agents, nanoreactors, or organizational scaffolds.