DNA lattices: A method for molecular-scale patterning and computation

cesses recently in constructing individual molecular components and manipulating molecules with probing devices, but there are few methods for constructing complex devices out of large numbers of these molecular components. We need methods to help hold, shape, and assemble molecular components into complex machines and systems. Success will require new theoretical understanding of nanoscale processes and new software infrastructure for simulating and designing molecular nanostructures. This article outlines the recent development— both theoretical and experimental—of self-assembled DNA nanostructures, which is the most advanced and versatile system known for programmable construction on the nanoscale. Recent developments in this field provide methods for bottom-up construction of highly patterned systems at the molecular scale. The methodology of DNA self-assembly begins with the artificial synthesis of single-strand DNA molecules that self-assemble into macromolecular building blocks called DNA tiles. These tiles have sticky ends that match the sticky ends of other DNA tiles, facilitating further assembly into large structures known as DNA tiling lattices. You can make the DNA tiling assemblies form any computable twoor three-dimensional pattern, however complex, with the appropriate choice of the tile’s component DNA. Recent experimental results indicate that this technique is scalable. Molecular imaging devices—such as atomic force microscopes and transmission electron microscopes—have demonstrated and visualized self-assembled two-dimensional DNA tiling lattices composed of hundreds of thousands of tiles. For the first time, our recent experiments have demonstrated the execution of computations through DNA tiling assemblies. These assemblies have several important potential applications because they let us build scaffolding on which to position molecular electronics and robotics components with precision and specificity. The programmability will let this scaffolding have the patterning required for fabricating complex devices made of these components.