Who knew! I certainly did not until I came across a press release from Brigham Young University which described the nanoelectronic techniques used to spell out their university’s iconic letters. How cool is that, BYU from AGCT!

Reading this made me curious about how wide-spread this technique is and what are the practical applications of this line of research. I was totally surprised to find that there were over 160,000 hits in a search on the topic, ‘DNA origami’.

A new journal called Nano Letters has been developed by the American Chemical Society to highlight research in this area. DNA origami was initially developed by computer scientist Paul Rothemund when he made DNA form the shape of a smiley face. It was seen at that time as being a precursor for the development of DNA quantum computers and nano-level devices including injectable robots that can travel through the body. Reading this, I’m thinking this is right out of some of the science fiction movies I had seen years ago.

One reason DNA is a molecule of choice for nano-designers and engineers is that the methods are already available to synthesize it in large quantities quickly and cheaply. The technique involves the use of long and short sequences of DNA. The shorter lengths are used as staples. Computer analysis of the location where the staples are needed tells what snippets of DNA are required. At this point, the short sequence, under 15 units long, can be synthesized with triplets on the end which do not anneal to each other. With ATG on one strand and CGA on the other, after gentle heating, the short piece will stick to parts of a long section containing TAC and GCT, effectively closing the loop on the staple.

The significance of the BYU announcement by Adam Woolley and his students is that they have been able to curve the DNA and make a letter like B. As indicated in the press release, “until now scientists had to hunt for viruses and microbes whose DNA strands were the right length for the particular task. That’s like building a log cabin without a saw: Instead of cutting the trees down to size, you have to size your cabin to the trees available. The BYU researchers instead replicate DNA to make strands precisely as long or as short as they need.”

I’ll keep my eye out for future developments in this exciting new branch of science. In the meantime, I’ve linked a short presentation by Dr. Rothemund