One goal of nanotechnology involves developing smart materials that can interact or respond to their environment very specifically.  DNA represents a useful biomolecule for developing such smart materials as it can be easily modified and interfaced with other materials like gold nanoparticles. We have shown that using molecular recognition we can control the composition and spacing in DNA-modified gold nanoparticles that are potential candidates for targeted drug delivery.   This was achieved using fluorophore-labeled DNA as a model for ligand or drug-modified DNA strands and fluorescence and F�rster-resonance energy transfer spectroscopy.  Molecular recognition between complementary DNA strands proves to be unaffected by the small molecule label, whereas gold-thiol self-assembly is very sensitive to the structure of the fluorophore.  In another example of DNA nanotechnology, we have modified DNA's structure, so that it causes target DNA to self-replicate isothermally.  This system has great potential in DNA diagnostics and infectious disease detection.

Controlling composition and function in DNA nanomaterials with molecular recognition

244th National Meeting (2012)

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