Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically InspiredEngineering at Harvard University have developed a method forbuilding complex nanostructures out of short synthetic strands ofDNA. Called single-stranded tiles (SSTs), these interlocking DNA"building blocks," akin to Legos, can be programmed to assemblethemselves into precisely designed shapes, such as letters andemoticons. Further development of the technology could enable the creation ofnew nanoscale devices, such as those that deliver drugs directly todisease sites. The technology, which is described in the online issue of Nature,was developed by a research team led by Wyss core faculty memberPeng Yin, Ph.D., who is also an Assistant Professor of SystemsBiology at Harvard Medical School. Other team members included WyssPostdoctoral Fellow Bryan Wei, Ph.D., and graduate student MingjieDai. DNA is best known as a keeper of genetic information. But in anemerging field of science known as DNA nanotechnology, it is beingexplored for use as a material with which to build tiny,programmable structures for diverse applications. To date, most research has focused on the use of a single longbiological strand of DNA, which acts as a backbone along whichsmaller strands bind to its many different segments, to createshapes. This method, called DNA origami, is also being pursued at the WyssInstitute under the leadership of Core Faculty member William Shih,Ph.D. Shih is also an Associate Professor in the Department ofBiological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard MedicalSchool and the Department of Cancer Biology at the Dana-FarberCancer Institute. In focusing on the use of short strands of synthetic DNA andavoiding the long scaffold strand, Yin's team developed analternative building method. Each SST is a single, short strand ofDNA. One tile will interlock with another tile, if it has acomplementary sequence of DNA. If there are no complementarymatches, the blocks do not connect. In this way, a collection oftiles can assemble itself into specific, predetermined shapesthrough a series of interlocking local connections. In demonstrating the method, the researchers created just over onehundred different designs, including Chinese characters, numbers,and fonts, using hundreds of tiles for a single structure of 100nanometers (billionths of a meter) in size. The approach is simple,robust, and versatile. As synthetically based materials, the SSTs could have someimportant applications in medicine. SSTs could organize themselvesinto drug-delivery machines that maintain their structuralintegrity until they reach specific cell targets, and because theyare synthetic, can be made highly biocompatible. "Use of DNA nanotechnology to create programmable nanodevices is animportant focus at the Wyss Institute, because we believe sostrongly in its potential to produce a paradigm-shifting approachto development of new diagnostics and therapeutics," said WyssFounding Director, Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Application Show Manufacturer , Film Masterbatch Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Plastic Resins.
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