Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Mathematisch-Naturwissen­schaft­liche Fakultät - Physik von Makromolekülen

Programmable Nanomaterials and Devices Based on DNA

Elisha Krieg, Ph.D. (Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University)
  • Wann 28.04.2017 von 13:15 bis 15:00
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Programmable Nanomaterials and Devices Based on DNA

DNA is a sequence-defined biopolymer that can be programmed to self-assemble into functional nanostructures with nearly arbitrary shapes. Unpaired, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) is the fundamental construction material for almost all artificial DNA-based nanomaterials, including DNA origami. Yet, preparative-scale production of long ssDNA with tailor-made sequences has been a significant challenge - and sets limits to our ability to program and control the properties of DNA-based nanodevices. We have recently developed a new method, called Nascent Polymer Sequestration and Release (NPSR) that enables inexpensive and scalable isolation of ssDNA with practically arbitrary sequence within the length regime of 100-10,000 nucleotides. We demonstrate successful downstream application of NPSR-generated multi-kilobase ssDNA by folding two- and three-dimensional DNA origami nanostructures. NPSR finds immediate application for production of new types of DNA origami with potentially superior, fully programmable sequence designs. Moreover, we are using NPSR-produced ssDNA for the development of methods that allow highly efficient CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing. In a separate technological application, we are combining DNA Nanotechnology with single-molecule microscopic techniques to develop a massively parallel nano-mechanical tool for rapid characterization of macromolecular structures. The new DNA-based nanodevices will enable powerful applications in the areas of Biomedicine, Molecular Biology and Biophysics.