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A Signal‐Passing DNA‐Strand‐Exchange Mechanism for Active Self‐Assembly of DNA Nanostructures |
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| Authors: | Dr. Jennifer E. Padilla Dr. Ruojie Sha Dr. Martin Kristiansen Prof. Junghuei Chen Prof. Natasha Jonoska Prof. Nadrian C. Seeman |
| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, NY 10003 (USA);2. Current Address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725 (USA);3. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (USA);4. Department of Mathematics, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL (USA) |
| Abstract: | DNA nanostructured tiles play an active role in their own self‐assembly in the system described herein whereby they initiate a binding event that produces a cascading assembly process. We present DNA tiles that have a simple but powerful property: they respond to a binding event at one end of the tile by passing a signal across the tile to activate a binding site at the other end. This action allows sequential, virtually irreversible self‐assembly of tiles and enables local communication during the self‐assembly process. This localized signal‐passing mechanism provides a new element of control for autonomous self‐assembly of DNA nanostructures. |
| Keywords: | DNA structures DNA tiles nanotechnology self‐assembly strand displacement |