Abstract

In nature, DNA serves as the carrier of hereditary information. In contrast, the field of DNA nanotechnology employs DNA as building material for self-assembling nanoscopic objects [1]. The technique known as DNA origami introduced by Paul Rothemund in 2006 [2] opened up new routes for the assembly of nanoscale objects in space. This method uses hundreds of synthetic oligonucleotides to fold a long DNA single strand into arbitrary two-dimensional shapes and patterns. I will comment on recent advances of three-dimensional DNA origami [3] and some of its possible applications. In particular, I will describe the arrangement of nanoscale objects such as fluorophores [4] and nanoparticles with unprecedented precision.

[1] N. C. Seeman, Journal of Theoretical Biology 99, 237 (1982). [2] P. W. K. Rothemund, Nature 440, 287(2006). [3] S. M. Douglas et al., Nature 459, 414 (2009). [4] I. Stein et al., ChemPhysChem. 12, 689 (2011).