Dr. Ashwin Gopinath
Postdoc, The Rothemund Lab, California Institute of Technology, California, USA

Directed Molecular Self-assembly Using DNA Origami

Bottom-up self-assembly, over the last couple of decades, has been very actively researched as a viable approach to realize nanostructures with spatial features and complexity unachievable by conventional top-down nanofabrication. DNA origami, amongst the various bottom-up approaches, is especially unique due to its ability to act as a modular “molecular breadboards” upon which up to 200 different components can be self-assembled with a resolution of 5-6 nm. Since it’s invention in 2006, DNA origami has found utility in a variety of different fields as a powerful research tool however no functional device has yet been realized using this technique. This shortcoming is partly due to the inability to rationally organize the DNA origami over a large area/volume and attempts to solve this have thus far been irreproducible or extraordinarily tedious.

In this talk, I will discuss our efforts to deterministically organize DNA origami on technologically relevant surfaces and detail our efforts to develop functional devices using the same. The technique we are working on is based on simple electrostatic interaction between DNA origami and surface that is modulated by the precise 2D/3D shape of the origami. We have also developed a simple predictive model of the underlying process and experimentally demonstrate how it can enable unique capabilities like orienting individual molecules on surfaces with less that 15 degree error in alignment. Lastly, I will talk about single molecule optical devices we are creating using our technique for quantum information processing as well as high-throughput bio-assays to quantitatively probe individual proteins and biological networks.