Prof. Barbara Sacca, Center of Medical Biotechnology (ZMB), University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany 

A DNA-origami device that can sense, process and actuate
The goal of this project is to develop a synthetic system that can sense, process and actuate molecular information in a programmable manner. For this purpose, two species, A and B, are positioned nanometers apart in a DNA origami compartment. A trigger DNA strand interacts with species A, releasing an intermediate that reacts with species B. Using FRET, we study how spatial arrangement, crowding agents, and cargo attachments affect reaction kinetics at the ensemble and single-molecule level. We also show that the output signal can be coupled to a chain growth event, leading to the formation of filament-like appendices on one side of the origami cage. Such a large-scale morphological change is hypothesized to alter the overall hydrodynamic properties of the nano-object and affect its random diffusion behavior in solution. Hence, our model system enables monitoring reaction kinetics within nanoscale environments while coupling input signals to physical observables. We envision that the programmability of the DNA origami object, both inside and outside the cavity, will offer a versatile tool for studying reaction kinetics at the nanoscale and creating more sophisticated nanosized objects that can self-propel in response to specific stimuli.

Prof. Björn Högberg, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Using Nanopatterns to Selectively Kill Tumors

I will present recent work where we use DNA origami to target the death receptor pathway to induce apoptosis. Using these findings we demonstrate a way to fabricate autonomous devices that only induce cell death in cancer microenvironments.