DMREF: Self Assembly with DNA-Labeled Colloidal Particles and DNA Nanostructures

DMREF：使用 DNA 标记的胶体颗粒和 DNA 纳米结构进行自组装

• 批准号: 1435964
• 负责人: Michael Brenner
• 金额: $ 149.28万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1435964&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DMREF; Self; Assembly; DNA; Labeled

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYCreating materials and devices that can assemble themselves has long been a holy grail in materials science, since it would introduce qualitatively new ways of making nano-scale structures and materials. The field of DNA nanotechnology has exploded with striking advances in creating robust and dynamic materials made entirely out of DNA, but the uses of DNA as a material on its own are much more limited than if it could be combined with other materials. A potentially vast synergy lies in the combination of colloidal assembly and DNA nanotechnology. Instead of mediating the interactions between particles by using DNA linkers (the current state of the art), one could control these interactions using more complex and potentially dynamic DNA nanostructures in solution. This project seeks to develop a fundamental understanding of how (dynamic) DNA nanostructures can control and program colloidal self-assembly. By putting this concept on a strong fundamental footing, it will be possible to exploit it to maximum effect through the design of DNA reaction networks that solve essential challenges to making colloidal self-assembly a practical materials fabrication platform. The set of possible interactions between building blocks is so large that this design space can only be systematically explored with a combined attack from theory, numerical simulation, and experiment. The project aims both to discover the fundamental principles underlying DNA particle-nanostructure interactions and to create new materials from plasmonic molecules to metafluids with immediate technological impact. The project will also involve Harvard undergraduates in a design curriculum for inner city middle schools, in a summer software development project through Harvard's Institute for Applied Computational Science, and in teams that participate in the International Genetically Engineered Machines competition.TECHNICAL SUMMARYThe investigators will work to understand and harness the different ways of making novel periodic and aperiodic colloidal structures out of particles and DNA nanostructures. Several types of DNA nanostructures can be used to control colloidal self-assembly. The simplest type of mediating DNA nanostructure involves single strands of DNA (ssDNA) in solution. Preliminary experiments show that free DNA strands give an unprecedented level of control over assembly and melting through strand displacement reactions. The investigators will also develop mediating DNA nanostructures that give an effective valence to inter-particle interactions, even when the particles are uniformly coated with ssDNA. Valence creates many new directions for robust self-assembly, from building large structures to designing structures that form spontaneously in a bath at finite concentration. Finally, they will investigate how DNA hairpins can lead to non-equilibrium interactions. This opens up new vistas for theory and experiments, including the design of self-replicating colloidal clusters and the development of kinetic proofreading schemes for significantly increasing the fidelity of the interactions over the equilibrium limit. For each type of DNA-mediated interaction, the team will use theory and simulation--which in some cases requires developing new methods--to enumerate the possibilities of what can be assembled. These will be used in conjunction with experiment to realize the assemblies described in the simulations, and these experiments will inform refinements of theory and simulations. Ultimately, they will arrive at a holistic view of what can be assembled with each mediating nanostructure.

创造能够自我组装的材料和设备长期以来一直是材料科学的圣杯，因为它将引入制造纳米尺度结构和材料的新方法。 DNA纳米技术领域在创造完全由DNA制成的坚固和动态材料方面取得了惊人的进展，但DNA本身作为材料的用途比它与其他材料结合的用途要有限得多。 一个潜在的巨大的协同作用在于胶体组装和DNA纳米技术的结合。 代替通过使用DNA连接体介导颗粒之间的相互作用（现有技术），可以使用溶液中更复杂和潜在动态的DNA纳米结构来控制这些相互作用。 该项目旨在发展对（动态）DNA纳米结构如何控制和编程胶体自组装的基本理解。 通过将这一概念置于坚实的基础之上，将有可能通过设计DNA反应网络来最大限度地发挥其作用，这些网络解决了使胶体自组装成为实用材料制造平台的基本挑战。 构建块之间可能的相互作用的集合是如此之大，以至于这个设计空间只能通过理论，数值模拟和实验的联合攻击来系统地探索。 该项目旨在发现DNA粒子-纳米结构相互作用的基本原理，并创造从等离子体分子到具有直接技术影响的超流体的新材料。 该项目还将让哈佛本科生参与内城区中学的设计课程，通过哈佛应用计算科学研究所参与夏季软件开发项目，技术总结研究人员将致力于了解和利用不同的方法，使新的周期性和非周期性的胶体结构的颗粒，DNA纳米结构。 几种类型的DNA纳米结构可用于控制胶体自组装。 介导DNA纳米结构的最简单类型涉及溶液中的单链DNA（ssDNA）。 初步实验表明，游离DNA链通过链置换反应对组装和解链进行了前所未有的控制。 研究人员还将开发介导DNA纳米结构，即使颗粒均匀地涂有ssDNA，也能为颗粒间相互作用提供有效的化合价。 原子价为强大的自组装创造了许多新的方向，从构建大型结构到设计在有限浓度的浴中自发形成的结构。 最后，他们将研究DNA发夹如何导致非平衡相互作用。 这为理论和实验开辟了新的前景，包括自我复制胶体团簇的设计和动力学校对方案的开发，以显着提高超过平衡极限的相互作用的保真度。 对于每种类型的DNA介导的相互作用，该团队将使用理论和模拟-在某些情况下需要开发新的方法-来列举可以组装的可能性。 这些将与实验结合使用，以实现模拟中描述的组件，这些实验将为理论和模拟的改进提供信息。 最终，他们将对每个介导纳米结构可以组装的东西有一个整体的看法。