DNA Self Assembly: A New Route in Nanotechnology
The field of nanotechnology is a unique and ever growing one. The field advances at an impressive rate. Nanotechnology itself is unique because of the scientific reach it has. Nanotechnology can be used in environmental science, materials chemistry, biomedical engineering, and even industrial engineering. The list of scientific fields that nanotechnology can be applied to is endless.
One field of science that has developed recently focuses on finding new nanotechnology, instead of finding new nanotechnology applications. This field is composed of researchers from multiple disciplines, because new nanotechnology can really come from anywhere. For example, in 2019, researchers found that cuttlefish ink contains nanoparticles that can be used for a variety of important applications, ranging from cancer treatments to recharging carbon capture technologies. Other researchers have natural nanoparticles in other organisms, which created an entire subfield of natural nanoparticles. The other subfield focuses on scientists creating and synthesizing nanoparticles. Here’s where DNA self-assembly particles come into play. Before we jump into the theory and applications of DNA self-assembly particles, let’s explore the other manufactured nanotechnologies.
Currently, scientists have managed to manufacture nanoparticles out of different metals and organic compounds. The biggest challenges, in terms of applications, that researchers face is that these manufactured metals are not biodegradable. For any application, researchers must measure the environmental footprint of the nanotechnology used. Non-biodegradable nanoparticles leave a large environmental footprint. As a result, their potential usage is severely limited. To combat this problem, researchers took the natural next step: manufacture biodegradable nanotechnology.
Now, we can shift our focus back onto DNA self-assembly particles. These manufactured nanoparticles, or more accurately nanocrystals because the particles are crystalline structures, are biodegradable. They are made out of nucleotide bases, which are the same bases that are used to make our DNA, our genetic code. These nucleotide bases, in turn, are made out of natural compounds like nitrogen, oxygen, phosphate, and hydrogen. All of them can be incorporated naturally into the ecosystem, and should not leave a large environmental footprint. So, this new development in nanotechnology allows for a wider range of applications than other manufactured nanoparticles.
The other advantage of DNA self assembly crystals is that they are self assembled. All researchers have to do is throw together the right ingredients, and the nanocrystals are created. How does this work? Well, DNA in our body is self-assembled. The nucleotides join based on the attractive and repulsive forces between them, so they don’t need outside molecules to help them. Researchers create different DNA strands that interact to create specific two or three dimensional shapes. For example, a study found that multiple copies of 2 or 3 varying strands can interact to form rhombohedral structure. Others can form a famous structure called a “tensegrity triangle.” This field of self-assembly is fairly recent, so more research is being conducted to determine what other three dimensional shapes can be created.
The applications of DNA self-assembly crystals are varying and interesting to examine. Again, since this field is so novel, new applications are being discovered frequently. In the biomedical field, these DNA crystals can be used to form drug-delivery pipelines. The DNA structures could be decorated with certain nanoparticles that could aid in reducing cancerous tumours, like the cuttlefish ink nanoparticles mentioned above. This drug-delivery device, if it succeeded, would revolutionize the cancer treatment world because it would greatly mitigate the horrible side effects of chemotherapy. Another application of these DNA nanocrystals is to act as a catalysis in certain reactions. The organic nature of the molecule could help catalyze reactions with other organic molecules or other organic reactions, such as protein folding.
DNA self-assembled nanocrystals are the next big “thing” in the field of nanotechnology. They are biodegradable and relatively easy to synthesize because they don’t require much outside help. It will be interesting to monitor the growth and applications of this novel field, which parallels any advancement in the nanotechnology field thus far.
References:
https://phys.org/news/2019-07-cuttlefish-ink-cancer-treatment.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-07690-y