Local Researchers Accredited For Creating The World's Largest DNA Origami

This month, researchers from nearby colleges of Duke University and North Carolina State University have collaborated with the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) to successfully create the world's largest DNA origami to date. These biochemical structures are composed of two types of DNA and are said to "self-assemble." This process to make them is as follows: researchers first take a scaffold strand, then add staple strands (strands that they synthesize customarily to pair with the scaffold strand). The two strands are both introduced into a solution and annealed together by being heated and cooled. The double helix will twist and fold as the nucleotides pair up with one another. These researchers have more than doubled the original standard of DNA origami from 7,249 bases (70-90nm) to 51,466 bases (200-300 nm)!!
Dr.Alexandria Marchi, the lead author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at Duke, said that they developed a customized scaffold DNA strand that contained 51 kilobases with the help of a molecular biologist in Denmark. The team went from needing 200 to 1,600 staple DNA strands, they had to seek a cost-effective way to make the staple strands. They then used a "converted inkjet printer" to put the DNA directly onto a plastic microchip. The article also noted that this customized origami can be viable in the study of cell behavior.
I personally think this is amazing. I can't imagine the patience and trial-and-error woes these researchers went through, but what an accomplishment! I'm even more proud to say that the research team is from the home state of North Carolina!

Scaffolded DNA origami utilizes numerous chemically synthesized, short DNA strands (staple strands) to direct the folding of a larger, biologically ...

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Credit: Alexandria Marchi

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by North Carolina State University.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Alexandria N. Marchi, Ishtiaq Saaem, Briana N. Vogen, Stanley Brown, Thomas H. LaBean. Toward Larger DNA Origami. Nano Letters, 2014; 140908131837007 DOI: 10.1021/nl502626s

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North Carolina State University. "World's largest DNA origami created." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 September 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140911094719.htm>.