DNA Will Be the Building Block of the Future

Jan 22, 2018

Two researcher teams based out of Harvard and Arizona State University have teamed up to engineer self-assembling blocks of DNA of up to 10,000 nucleotides long, over 35x larger than ever previously assembled. These groups are developing a variety of shapes and sizes of “DNA Origami” that they believe can be engineered and scaled up into nano-robots, drug delivery devices, and molecular computers. As proof-of-concept researchers have already created 18 unique shapes, including triangles, rhombuses, hearts, and even smiley face emojis.

Prior to this breakthrough, scientists attempting DNA nanotechnology assembly needed to scaffold their DNA with short helper strands, securing each piece into place. This methodology is limited in its ability to scale up for production and increase in size. To surpass these existing limits, researchers studied and codified the rules behind single-stranded self-folding of RNA molecules. Applying these algorithms to their synthetic experiments, the team was able to develop self-folding single-stranded DNA or “ssOrigami” at a scale and size previously unheard of. This ssOrigami can be propagated via PCR or prepped from bacteria and folded in vitro.

Moving forward, the team is looking to design a RNA ssOrigami sequence that can be both transcribed and folded within a bacteria, creating automated bacterial micro-factories to produce biomaterial building blocks.

• Han, D., Qi, X., Myhrvold, C., Wang, B., Dai, M., & Jiang, S. et al. (2017). Single-stranded DNA and RNA origami. Science, 358 (6369), eaao2648.
  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aao2648

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