This Nano Focus article highlights recent advances in RNA nanotechnology as presented at the First International Conference of RNA Nanotechnology and Therapeutics, which took place in Cleveland, OH, USA (October 23-25, 2010) ( http://www.eng.uc.edu/nanomedicine/RNA2010/ ), chaired by Peixuan Guo and co-chaired by David Rueda and Scott Tenenbaum. The conference was the first of its kind to bring...

Over the past two decades, measurements on individual stretched and twisted DNA molecules have helped define the basic elastic properties of the double helix and enabled real-time functional assays of DNA-associated molecular machines. Recently, new magnetic tweezers approaches for simultaneously measuring freely fluctuating twist and extension have begun to shed light on the structural dynamic...

DNA nanotechnology often requires collections of oligonucleotides called "DNA free energy gap codes" that do not produce erroneous crosshybridizations in a competitive muliplexing environment. This paper addresses the question of how to design these codes to accomplish a desired amount of work within an acceptable error rate. Using a statistical thermodynamic and probabilistic model of DNA code...

While capsid proteins are assembled around single-stranded genomic DNA or RNA in rod-shaped viruses, the lengthy double-stranded genome of other viruses is packaged forcefully within a preformed protein shell. This entropically unfavourable DNA or RNA packaging is accomplished by an ATP-driven viral nanomotor, which is mainly composed of two components, the oligomerized channel and the packagin...

Reversible posttranslational fluorescence labeling opens exciting possibilities for advanced and superresolution microscopy techniques. In their Research Article (e202219050) Michael Holtmannspötter, Jacob Piehler et al. have engineered HaloTag variants with restored dehalogenase activity, which enzymatically exchange fluorogenic substrates at the second-to-minutes time scale. Thus, long-term t...

Single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) oligonucleotides are useful as aptamers, hybridization probes and for emerging applications in DNA nanotechnology. Current methods to purify ssDNA require both a strand-separation step and a separate size-separation step but may still leave double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) impurities in the sample. Here, we use commercially available acrydite DNA primers to immobilize one...

BIOTECHNOLOGY CAN BE BROADLY DEFINED as the use of specially bred living organisms to solve problems and produce new products or, more narrowly, as the intentional alteration of living organisms by manipulation of their DNA. In either case, nanotechnology—that is, the creation of moleculesize machines and other devices and the manipulation of substances molecule by molecule—will play an increas...

The simple helical motif of double-strand DNA (dsDNA) has typically been judged to be uninteresting for assembly in DNA-based nanotechnology applications. In this letter, we demonstrate construction of superstructures consisting of heterogeneous DNA motifs using dsDNA in conjunction with more complex, cross-tile building blocks. Incorporation of dsDNA bridges in stepwise assembly processes can ...