Modelling Biomimetic Structures and Machinery Using DNA

摘要

Nucleic acids, archetypal biomolecules, can be used to model and study natural biomolecular assembly processes and the operation of molecular machinery. The programmability of DNA and RNA base pairing has enabled the creation of a very wide range of synthetic nanostructures through control of the interactions between molecular components. More sophisticated design techniques allow control of the kinetics as well as the thermodynamics of these interactions, creating the potential to study and control assembly pathways and allowing the construction of both dynamic systems that process information and of biomimetic molecular machinery. Techniques of simulation and verification are important in understanding and designing these increasingly complex systems. I shall present a broad review of the rapidly developing research field of dynamic DNA nanotechnology, with particular emphasis on our use of a combination of experimental synthesis and computation to study DNA origami assembly pathways, kinetic control of strand displacement reactions, synthetic molecular motors, and molecular machinery for the creation of sequence-controlled polymers.