DNA strand displacement systems have transformative potential in synthetic biology. While powerful examples have been reported in DNA nanotechnology, such systems are plagued by leakage, which limits network stability, sensitivity, and scalability. An approach to mitigate leakage in DNA nanotechnology, which is applicable to synthetic biology, is to introduce mismatches to complementary fuel se...

The aim of nanotechnology is to put specific atomic and molecular species where we want them, when we want them there. Achieving such dynamic and functional control could lead to programmable chemical synthesis and nanoscale systems that are responsive to their environments. Structural DNA nanotechnology offers a powerful route to this goal by combining stable branched DNA motifs with cohesive ...

DNA nanotechnology has reported a wide range of structurally tunable scaffolds with precise control over their size, shape and mechanical properties. One promising application these nanodevices is as probes for protein function or determination structure. In this perspective we cover several recent examples in field, including determining the effect ligand spacing multivalency on cell activatio...

DNA has found wide applications in DNA-based nanotechnology due to its simplicity and predictability of its secondary structure. Selecting DNA for the nanoconstruction of objects and assemblies bears the inherent potential for manipulations and control by DNA modifying enzymes. In this tutorial review, we present an overview of the enzyme-catalysed construction of DNA-based objects and assembli...

Chemical analysis of metalized DNA has made it quite clear that traditional models thermodynamics are insufficient to predict and control self-assembly in the context orthogonally-paired nucleotides. Recently, there been an increase reports Watson-Crick assembly wires nanostructures [1–4]. The ability add or remove pairing rules between nucleobases toward non-Watson-Crick, orthogonal, alters fu...

Left-handed Z-DNA has been identified as a transient structure occurred during transcription. DNA B-Z transition has attracted much attention because of not only Z-DNA biological importance but also their relation to disease and DNA nanotechnology. Recently, photoluminescent carbon dots, especially highly luminescent nitrogen-doped carbon dots, have attracted much attention on their application...