Nat. Nanotechnol. 2015, doi: 10.1038/nnano.2015.190

Knudsen J B, Liu L, Kodal A L B, Madsen M, Li Q, Song J, Woehrstein J B, Wickham S F J, Strauss M T, Scheuder F, Vinther J, Krissanaprasit A, Gudnason D, Smith A A A, Ogaki R, Zelikin A N, Besenbacher F, Birkedal V, Yin P, Shih W M, Jungmann R, Dong M, Gothelf K V

About the cover: http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v10/n10/covers/index.html

• Centre for DNA Nanotechnology, Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, iNANO, Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
• Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University, Langelandsgade 140, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
• Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, 3 Blackfan Circle, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
• Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsreid, Munich, Germany
• Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Warren Alpert Building, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA

Abstract

Synthetic polymers are ubiquitous in the modern world, but our ability to exert control over the molecular conformation of individual polymers is very limited. In particular, although the programmable self-assembly of oligonucleotides and proteins into artificial nanostructures has been demonstrated, we currently lack the tools to handle other types of synthetic polymers individually and thus the ability to utilize and study their single-molecule properties. Here we show that synthetic polymer wires containing short oligonucleotides that extend from each repeat can be made to assemble into arbitrary routings. The wires, which can be more than 200 nm in length, are soft and bendable, and the DNA strands allow individual polymers to self-assemble into predesigned routings on both two- and three-dimensional DNA origami templates. The polymers are conjugated and potentially conducting, and could therefore be used to create molecular-scale electronic or optical wires in arbitrary geometries.