Designing Nucleic Acid Nanostructures for Biomedical Applications

Our research focuses on the design, engineering, and characterization of DNA and RNA nanostructures for applications in nanomedicine, molecular recognition, and biosensing. We combine nucleic acid biochemistry, nanotechnology, structural biology, and bioinformatics to develop functional nanoscale systems.

Here are helpful tips to imagine just how small nanotechnology is
  • In 1 meter (~40 inches), there are 1 billion nanometers.
  • A sheet of newspaper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.
  • If a marble were a nanometer, then one meter would be the size of our planet.

The illustration below exemplifies differences between macro- vs. nano- world showing nucleic acid as a material to fabricate nanoparticles of various shapes and dimensions. 

Macro-world:

Nano-world:

What is unique about nucleic acid and its technology? Nucleic acid nanotechnology is a rapidly emerging field with strong potential for applications in diverse disciplines, including nanomedicine, biosensors, and bioelectronics, “smart” nano-bio-devices. Our particular attention is devoted to RNA molecules, which are known to encode genetic information and actively participate in various intracellular functions, including gene expression regulation. The Discovery of RNA’s regulatory function is expanding its traditional role as a genetic messenger and revealing it as a functionally versatile molecule. RNAs fold into complex three-dimensional (3D) architectures to achieve their tasks. We are inspired by these natural 3D RNA elements and use this information to design and fabricate artificial Nucleic Acid complexes with fine-tuned physicochemical properties.