Tiny "pottery" items were assembled from DNA. Look what the geneticists have done

Researchers from Duke University and Arizona State University have developed a program that

turns drawings or digital models into roundedforms into three-dimensional structures made of DNA. Each tiny hollow object is no more than a millionths of a centimeter across. The technology will be useful to create tiny containers for drug delivery or molds for casting metal nanoparticles for solar cells and medical devices.

There are four "letters" in the genetic code, ornitrogenous bases (adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine) that combine in predictable ways in our cells to form the DNA sequence. The researchers used the patterns of connections between the elements of this "alphabet" to "program" the threads so that they fold into different shapes.

Modeling results (top) and finished products under a microscope (bottom). Image: Arizona State University

As a result of the simulation, the computer selects,how to convert a user's drawing into a sequence of one or more single-stranded DNA fragments. It can reach thousands of bases and is formed by several hundred short strands of DNA that bind to complementary sequences on long chains and join together in "production".

For example, if you offer a computer a drawingan object resembling a mushroom, the program generates a list of DNA strands that must independently assemble into the correct configuration. Then it is enough to synthesize the threads with the correct sequence, place them in one test tube, and everything else will happen by itself. When the DNA mixture is heated and cooled, it folds into finished products in just 12 hours, the authors explain.

The process of modeling and assembling molecules. Image: Daniel Fu et al., Science Advances

Researchers are experimenting with DNA asbuilding material since the 1980s. The first three-dimensional figures were simple cubes, pyramids, soccer balls - geometric figures with rough and block surfaces. But designing structures with curved surfaces more like those found in nature has been challenging, the scientists explain. This often requires iterating through many options to achieve the desired shape. An open source program provided by geneticists solves this problem.

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