Designer nanoscale DNA assemblies programmed from the top down

Scaffolded DNA origami is a versatile means of synthesizing complex molecular architectures. However, the approach is limited by the need to forward-design specific Watson-Crick base pairing manually for any given target structure. Here, we report a general, top-down strategy to design nearly arbitrary DNA architectures autonomously based only on target shape. Objects are represented as closed surfaces rendered as polyhedral networks of parallel DNA duplexes, which enables complete DNA scaffold routing with a spanning tree algorithm. The asymmetric polymerase chain reaction is applied to produce stable, monodisperse assemblies with custom scaffold length and sequence that are verified structurally in three…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: CCF-1547999, 1334109
• HF
  Human Frontier Science Program

  Award: RGP0029/2015
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: P50GM103297, NIH P41GM103832
• OO
  Office of Naval Research

  Award: N000141410609