Materials Science and Engineering Commons^™

Structural Dna Origami: Engineering Supermolecular Self-Assembly For Nanodevice Fabrication, Craig Marshal Onodera

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Two challenges encountered in nanotechnology are the ability to create nanostructures inexpensively and the ability to arrange nanomaterials with a precision commensurate with their size. In nature, nanostructures are created using a bottom-up approach, whereby molecules hierarchically self-assemble into larger systems. Similarly, structural DNA nanotechnology harnesses the programmability, specificity, and structural integrity of DNA to engineer synthetic, self-assembled materials. For example, during scaffolded DNA origami, a long single stranded DNA polymer is artificially folded into nanostructures using short oligonucleotides. Once folded, two- and three-dimensional nanostructures may be decorated with proteins, metallic nanoparticles, and semiconductor quantum dots. Using gold nanoparticles and …