New York University Structural DNA Nanotechnology Facility

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。知识价值。结构DNA纳米技术——利用合成DNA分子来开发分支基元，这些基元可以利用DNA分子中固有的信息组装成物体、晶格和设备——是纽约大学（NYU）的nadian Seeman教授开创的一项迅速发展的研究事业，他是纽约大学结构DNA纳米技术设施的共同负责人和主任。这项工作已经发展成为一门国际公认的研究学科，但纽约大学设施的现有条件（20多年前进行了翻新）可能会减缓该领域的进展。该基础设施项目将使纽约大学能够纠正现有设施中的实验限制和恶劣的工作条件，包括损坏的墙壁，连根拔起的地砖，腐蚀的案例，不可操作的罩，糟糕的学生工作空间，糟糕的晶体制备和表征空间，以太网功能不足，过时的分子图形和数据分析设施。此外，计算和仪器的进步使该设施的许多基础设施特征过时了。拟议的项目将通过创建710平方英尺的数据分析室和毗邻的295平方英尺的计算机图形室来解决这些限制；翻新两个共用湿式实验室，总计1065平方英尺；创建一个325平方英尺的晶体制备和表征室，重新配置以提高晶体生长能力，原子力显微镜和样品处理；用120平方英尺的环境室取代过时的冷藏室。此次改造将大大提高共享空间利用率、实验室实践、网络基础设施、数据处理、DNA纳米结构设计和表征、实验工作的完整性和可重复性、安全性、数据安全和实验室安全。更广泛的影响。结构DNA纳米技术是在这个基础设施改造项目的基础上创新和建立的，在过去的十年里，这个领域已经从这个单一的实验室发展到今天全球近50个实验室。现有的设施支持教师、博士后、研究生和本科生以及外部合作者的持续研究。此外，作为结构DNA纳米技术的奠基地，纽约大学的设施已经成为培训许多访客的纽带。这些人来自美国以及世界各地的机构（如意大利、德国、韩国、日本和澳大利亚），他们都对学习结构DNA纳米技术的基础知识感兴趣。该设施每年至少培训三名高中生，其中许多高中生都因他们的工作而获奖。实验室的翻新将允许继续和扩大这些培训活动和合作，这对结构DNA纳米技术领域的持续发展至关重要。结构DNA纳米技术设施的翻新将允许其研究人员加速他们的研究工作，利用DNA纳米结构来指导纳米粒子、无机纳米管和纳米电子/纳米光子组件的组装，使其精确地排列成3D排列。研究人员将基于dna的纳米机械装置整合到三维晶体中，并利用这些晶体中的分子腔作为生物物种的宿主位点，这可以促进生物分子的结构确定以及它们组织成多酶物种。翻新后的设施将提供现代化的实验室环境，用于培训DNA设计和合成、结晶和晶体制备、表征、数据精化和可视化方面的各级研究人员。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Intellectual Merit. Structural DNA nanotechnology - the use of synthetic DNA molecules to develop branched motifs that can be assembled into objects, lattices and devices using the information inherent in the DNA molecule - is a rapidly expanding research enterprise that was pioneered at New York University (NYU) by Professor Nadrian Seeman, a co-PI and Director of the NYU Structural DNA Nanotechnology Facility. This work has blossomed into an internationally recognized research discipline, but the existing conditions of the NYU facility, which was renovated more than 20 years ago, threaten to slow advances in the field. This infrastructure project will enable NYU to correct experimental limitations and poor working conditions in the existing facility, which include damaged walls, uprooted floor tiles, corroded casework, inoperable hoods, poor student workspace, poor crystal preparation and characterization space, inadequate Ethernet capabilities, and outdated molecular graphics and data analysis facilities. Moreover, advances in computation and instrumentation have rendered many infrastructure features of the facility obsolete. The proposed project will address these constraints by creating a 710 square foot data analysis room, with an adjoining 295 square foot computer graphics room; refurbishing two shared wet laboratories, totaling 1065 square feet; creating a 325 square foot crystal preparation and characterization room, reconfigured for improving crystal growth capability, atomic force microscopy and sample handling; and replacing an outdated cold room with a 120 square foot environmental chamber. The renovation will substantially improve shared space utilization, laboratory practices, cyberinfrastructure, data handling, DNA nanostructure design and characterization, integrity and reproducibility of experimental work, safety, data security, and laboratory security.Broader Impacts. Structural DNA nanotechnology was innovated and established in the site of this infrastructure renovation project, and during the past decade this field has grown from this single laboratory to nearly 50 laboratories worldwide today. The existing facility supports the research of the faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students, and external collaborators on a continual basis. Moreover, as the founding site of structural DNA nanotechnology, the NYU facility has become a nexus for training many visitors on a continual basis. These individuals hail from U.S. institutions as well as institutions worldwide (e.g., Italy, Germany, South Korea, Japan, and Australia), all interested in learning structural DNA nanotechnology fundamentals. The facility trains at least three high school students each year, and many of the high school students have won awards based on their work. The renovation of the laboratory will permit continuation and expansion of these training activities and collaborations, which are essential to the continued growth of the structural DNA nanotechnology field. The renovation of the Structural DNA Nanotechnology Facility will permit its investigators to accelerate their research efforts, employing DNA nanostructures to direct the assembly of nanoparticles, inorganic nanotubes, and nanoelectronic/nanophotonic components into precise 3D arrangements. The investigators will incorporate DNA-based nanomechanical devices into 3D crystals and use molecular cavities in these crystals as host sites for biological species, which can facilitate structure determination of biomolecules as well as their organization into multi-enzyme species. The renovated facility will provide a modernized laboratory environment for training all levels of investigators in DNA design and synthesis, crystallization and crystal preparation, characterization, and data refinement and visualization.