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3D self-assembly using DNA as programmable molecules
Our goal is to build artificial molecular systems and machines sufficiently sophisticated to recapitulate and decipher fundamental aspects of biology and to help solve problems of medical interest. We use a DNA self-assembly method called DNA origami, which represents a landmark as the first practical method to self assemble megadalton scale nanostructures with arbitrarily-defined morphology and programmable actuation. I will first present an overview of the field of DNA origami nanotechnology and next present several applications of this method. At the end, I will report the ability to engineer DNA nanostructures up to 1 gigadalton by using a new method called DNA Lego. This recent work introduces the practical one-pot construction of fully addressable nanostructures containing 1.7 million nucleotides, comparable to the size of an entire genome of some bacteria. Collectively, these methods may offer a `bottom-up’ route to scale programmable morphology and create opportunities for de novo fabrication of high-performing functional molecular systems previously inaccessible.