DNA nanotechnology at 40

Nadrian C. Seeman

Nano Letter 20, 1477−1478 (2020). https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c00325

We are approaching the 40th anniversary of the conceptualization of DNA nanotechnology. I was inspired in a bar in 1980 by the topological isomorphism between 6-arm DNA branched junctions and the crystalline arrangement of fish in Escher’s Depth: the notion presented itself that branched DNA motifs could be connected in crystalline or other network arrangements by single-stranded sticky ends. The importance of using DNA and sticky ends is that motif topologies and structures, and particularly intermolecular contacts, could be specified simply by programming DNA sequences. As a bonus, the structure of paired sticky ends is B-DNA so that in addition to affinity the product structures are also predesigned. Control of nanostructures by using DNA information is now sometimes termed Semantomorphic Chemistry.