EFRI-ODISSEI: Foldable Self-Replicating DNA Nanostructures for Organization of Functional Nanomaterials and 3D Meta-Material Assembly

该项目的研究目标是开发能够自组装成更大的一维和二维阵列的DNA纳米结构，能够进行可编程的自我复制和可编程的折纸折叠成复杂的、可预测的三维形状。由此产生的纳米结构折纸将把嵌入的非DNA组件组织成复杂的几何形状，从而实现新的材料特性和设备功能。该项目汇集了来自科学、数学和雕塑艺术的一批领先的专家和实践者，他们将利用他们不同的专业知识和灵感，从理论和实验的角度合作解决技术挑战。该项目还培养了新一代科学家和学生，他们能够开发新的功能纳米材料范例，并向广大公众传达这些结果的兴奋和可能性。如果成功，该项目的好处将是通过我们在应对制备困难的原始模板结构方面的挑战方面的进展，使用大规模生产的组件实现简单且经济的复杂三维纳米结构的自我复制。自我复制也将促进一代又一代更好的材料或设备的进化。因此，从长远来看，一个研究小组可以开发一种DNA组织的光学超材料，然后通过将初始模板引入常规从普通铸造厂订购的组件的大桶中立即获得大量原型；类似地，医疗团队可能能够通过进化DNA纳米结构来创造复杂的免疫治疗疫苗，该DNA纳米结构以某种最佳的、但最初未知的三维构型展示各种抗原和佐剂；同样，环境清理人员可能能够通过聚集在采光复合体周围的多种酶的太阳能活动，快速生产大量用于分解不同水中污染物的纳米设备。因此，我们正在开发的能力将促进以前无法想象的方法来生产有用和有价值的新材料。该项目由国家科学基金会和美国空军科学研究办公室联合发起。

The research objective of this project is to develop DNA nanostructures that can self-assemble into larger one dimensional and two dimensional arrays capable of programmable self-replication and programmable origami folding into complex, predictable three dimensional shapes. The resulting nanostructured origami will organize embedded non-DNA components into intricate geometries that enable new material properties and device functionalities. This project brings together a team of leading experts and practitioners from the sciences, mathematics, and sculptural arts who will draw upon their diverse expertise and inspirations to tackle collaboratively the technical challenges from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. The project is also educating a new generation of scientists and students capable of developing new paradigms for functional nanomaterial and communicating the excitement and possibilities of these results to the public at large. If successful, the benefits of this project will be to enable the easy and economical self-replication of complex three dimensional nanostructures using mass produced components, through our progress in meeting the challenges of preparing the difficult original template structures. Self-replication will also facilitate the evolution of better materials or devices from generation to generation. Thus, in the long term, a research group may develop a DNA-organized optical metamaterial, and then immediately obtain large quantities of the prototype by introducing the initial template into a vat of components routinely ordered from a general foundry; similarly, a medical team may be able to create a complex immunotherapeutic vaccine by evolving a DNA nanostructure which displays a variety of antigens and adjuvants in some optimal, but initially unknown, three dimensional configuration; in the same vein, an environmental cleanup crew may be able to produce rapidly large quantities of a nanodevice tailored for breaking down different water borne pollutants via the solar powered activity of multiple enzymes clustered around light harvesting complexes. Thus, the capabilities we are developing will facilitate previously unimagined methodologies in the production of useful and valuable new materials.This project is jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research.