Microscopic 'Origami' Brings DNA Into Fold

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Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-sci-

origami18mar18,1,3121716.story

SCIENCE FILE

Microscopic 'Origami' Brings DNA Into Fold

From Reuters

March, 18 2006

A Caltech scientist has taken the art of origami to a new level —

using DNA instead of paper.

Computer scientist Rothemund said Wednesday that he had woven

DNA strands into two-dimensional shapes, a process that could be

important in nanotechnology design.

" The construction of custom DNA origami is so simple that the method

should make it much easier for scientists from diverse fields to

create and study complex nanostructures they might want, " he said in

a statement.

In nanotechnology, materials are manipulated on a molecular or atomic

scale. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter — about 80,000 times

narrower than a human hair. In nature, molecular " machines " perform

biological functions such as muscle movement and photosynthesis.

Nanotechnology is used in cosmetics, computer chips and stain-

resistant clothes.

Rothemund, who described his DNA origami in the latest edition of the

journal Nature, has constructed DNA objects including a triangle, a

five-pointed star, a smiley face, and a tiny map of the Americas

smaller than a typical bacterium.

" A biologist might use DNA origami to take proteins which normally

occur separately in nature and organize them into a multi-enzyme

factory that hands a chemical product from one enzyme machine to the

next in the manner of an assembly line, " Rothemund said.

The process includes choosing a shape, using long DNA strands folded

to form a scaffold of it, stapling it together with computer-

generated short DNA strands and refining it on a computer.