A model for the self-assembly of origami nanostructures

by Ben Shirt-Ediss

16:00 (40 min) in STREAM

Nano-sized structures called "origamis" can be programmed to self-assemble from many hundreds of DNA (or RNA) strands that hybridise together. These well-defined nano shapes are able to precisely organise molecular components at the nano scale. As such, they represent a powerful technology with many interesting applications in biomedicine and synthetic biology.

For example, "killer origamis" can bind to and kill bacteria, "delivery origamis" transport therapeutic payloads to target tissues, "bread board origamis" place enzymes in precise spatial patterns for efficient catalysis, and "mould origamis" scaffold the nucleation of other nano particles (e.g. metal). However, despite all these applications, not much is actually known about the complex process by which they self-assemble from individual DNA strands, and how key design and experimental parameters affect this process.

In this talk, I will describe a computational biophysics model that I have developed with collaborators, which attempts to capture the self-assembly pathway of origami nanostructures. I will also describe a new algorithm that reverse engineers origami designs only specified as sequences, that makes the folding simulations of many published origamis possible.