Utilizing the Organizational Power of DNA Scaffolds for New Nanophotonic Applications

Abstract

Rapid development of DNA technology has provided a feasible route to creating nanoscale materials. DNA acts as a self‐assembled nanoscaffold capable of assuming any three‐dimensional shape. The ability to integrate dyes and new optical materials such as quantum dots and plasmonic nanoparticles precisely onto these architectures provides new ways to exploit their near‐ and far‐field interactions. A fundamental understanding of these optical processes will help drive development of next‐generation photonic nanomaterials. This review is focused on latest progress in DNA‐based photonic materials and highlights DNA scaffolds for rapidly assembling and prototyping nanoscale optical devices. Three areas are discussed including intrinsically active DNA structures displaying chiral properties, DNA scaffolds hosting plasmonic nanomaterials, and fluorophore‐labeled DNAs that engage in Förster resonance energy transfer and give rise to complex molecular photonic wires. An explanation of what is desired from these optical processes when harnessed sets the tone for what DNA scaffolds are providing toward each focus. Examples from the literature illustrate current progress along with a discussion of challenges to overcome for further improvements. Opportunities to integrate diverse classes of optically active molecules including light‐generating enzymes, fluorescent proteins, nanoclusters, and metal–chelates in new structural combinations on DNA scaffolds are also highlighted.

Supramolecular assembly of DNA-constructed vesicles

“…[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Such functional supramolecular polymers feature properties beyond the classical role of DNA in biological systems, with applications in optoelectronic devices, drug delivery systems, and diagnostics to name a few. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] However, vesicular morphologies are predominantly reported from lipid-DNA conjugates or DNA functionalized liposomes, [29][30][31][32][33][34] while the field apart from lipid-based DNA constructs remains largely unexplored. 35 In previous work, we demonstrated the self-assembly of phenanthrene-DNA conjugates into vesicular structures with light-harvesting features.…”

Automated sequence design of 2D wireframe DNA origami with honeycomb edges

“…Traditionally, 2D 3 and 3D 4,5 bricklike origami objects were designed using parallel duplexes assembled on square and honeycomb lattices largely to endow structural rigidity in 3D, and ease of manual scaffold routing in 2D and 3D, aided by the graphical design program caDNAno 6 that also performs staple assignment semiautomatically. Such 2D and 3D assemblies have been used for a variety of applications 1,2,[7][8][9] including templating materials such as carbon nanotubes 10 , metal nanowires 11 , nanoparticle coordination [12][13][14][15] , graphene sheets 16 , and cell ligand patterning 2,17 . In addition, functionalized 2D DNA origami has been used as single-molecule chemical reactors 18 , energy transfer devices 19 , as well as scaffolds for drug delivery 20 and lithographic patterning 21 .…”

Biological characteristics and biomarkers of novel SARS-CoV-2 facilitated rapid development and implementation of diagnostic tools and surveillance measures

“…Subsequently, the SARS-CoV-2 RNA initiates hybridization of DNA probes like H1 and free H2 along with the nano-scaffold, thus, illuminated DNA nanostrings can be rapidly reached ( Chauhan et al, 2020 ). This method is also advantages because the possibility of designing their probes locally and also temperature tolerance with the isothermal amplification, thus, can be projected to diagnose specific targets within short reaction time about 5–10 min and at mild temperature condition 15–35 °C ( Bui et al, 2019 ). This report further describes several opportunities to meet together integrating a diverse range of optically active agents including fluorescent proteins, light-forming enzymes, nanoclusters, and metal chelates, and composite nanomaterials with a novel structural composite on designed DNA scaffolds are emerging with rapid pace ( Yuan et al, 2014 ).…”