Faster, more reliable fabrication of atomically precise products:
We demonstrate that, at constant temperature, hundreds of DNA strands can cooperatively fold a long template DNA strand within minutes into complex nanoscale objects….Folding at optimized constant temperatures enabled the rapid production of three-dimensional DNA objects with yields that approached 100%. The results point to similarities with protein folding in spite of chemical and structural differences. The possibility for rapid and high-yield assembly will enable DNA nanotechnology for practical applications.
…prospects for the hierarchical assembly (8, 26–28) of larger objects are opened, where a high yield of well-folded building blocks is one important prerequisite.“Rapid Folding of DNA into Nanoscale Shapes at Constant Temperature”
Image to the right: Electron micrograph of folded DNA objects produced by warming and cooling a solution containing designed DNA strands (typical quantities made: billions). One of many different structures designed and demonstrated by the authors in the Physics Department at the Technische Universität München.
(Black scale bars, 20 nm; white scale bar, 200 nm)
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This is a good advance and step towards mature molecular manufacturing. My question: Could DNA nano-assemblers directly be constructed that would allow integration with harder, stronger, more robust materials, for use in bootstrapping inert-enviroment assembler systems that work with carbon radicals and other materials? Or perhaps the next step would be integrating DNA systems with silicate systems, which can then be used to build fullerene and diamondoid systems?
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