A team of INMA boosts research into new nanomaterials with important advances in the chemistry of DNA origami
– Researchers from the Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute (INMA), a joint centre of the University of Zaragoza and the Spanish National Research Council) lead the work of a publication on DNA origami in the prestigious ‘Journal of the American Chemical Society’.
– Their discovery opens up new possibilities in the field of chemistry and nanoscience; giving rise to sophisticated architectures with the potential to revolutionise biomedicine.
Zaragoza, 19 February 2025. A team from the Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute (INMA), a joint centre of the University of Zaragoza and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), has just participated in a breakthrough in the chemistry of what is known as DNA origami by incorporating a variety of molecules into materials built with deoxyribonucleic acid using a novel, simple and more efficient strategy than those described to date. Alejandro Postigo (UNIZAR), Jesús del Barrio (UNIZAR) and Silvia Hernández (CSIC), from INMA’s CLIP group, from INMA’s CLIP group, are three of the members of this team, which has just had its breakthrough published in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society, an international reference in the field of chemistry.
DNA, the molecule of life, is made up of four basic building blocks: A, T, C and G, which form the genetic alphabet. These components are paired in a very precise way, giving rise to a double-stranded structure that is where biological information is stored.
The INMA team takes advantage of this specificity to modulate the interaction between synthetic DNA molecules and programme the formation of complex structures at the nanoscale with a very well-controlled morphology. This is the basis of DNA nanotechnology, a tool for fabricating nanomaterials by self-assembly of DNA molecules.
DNA origami is a technique within DNA nanotechnology that allows the self-assembly of nanomaterials through a process similar to origami. A long DNA molecule is folded with the help of ‘staples’ formed by shorter ones, which guide and stabilise the final structure.
This technique has great potential to revolutionise scientific fields such as biomedicine or materials science, but it is usually necessary to integrate other molecules with certain properties that enhance its functionality.
This technique has great potential to revolutionise scientific fields such as biomedicine or materials science, but it is usually necessary to integrate other molecules with certain properties that enhance their functionality.
This work offers an innovative and versatile chemical approach that facilitates the incorporation of several functional molecules. ‘Specifically, we combine DNA strands with another molecule that enhances their self-assembly and provides the necessary chemical structure for a simple and efficient coupling of functionalities, using click chemistry, awarded with the Nobel Prize in 2022,’ explain the researchers.
This strategy allows for the efficient incorporation of a large number of fluorescent molecules, significantly lowering the cost compared to other methods. As a result, highly fluorescent DNA origami with properties relevant to cell biology and nanophotonics are obtained.
Further advances
On the other hand, using advanced microscopy techniques and together with researchers Anabel Gracia Lostao (ARAID) and Carlos Marcuello, at INMA and LMA, they have managed to demonstrate that the incorporation of polymers commonly used in pharmaceutical nanoformulations significantly modifies the rigidity of DNA origami, which could influence its interaction with biological environments.
‘Finally, with the collaboration of the team of Prof. K. Goëpfrich at Heidleberg University, we showed that our approach facilitates the interaction of DNA origami with systems that emulate the architecture of lipid membranes, which opens up multiple options in the area of synthetic biology,’ the scientists insist.
This strategy will open up new possibilities for the functionalisation of origami and other DNA nanomaterials with a wide range of molecules, leading to sophisticated architectures that can drive the development of advanced therapies, disease diagnostics and devices for energy applications.
This is the link of the article: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.4c12637
Folding and functionalizing DNA origami: A versatile approach using a reactive polyamine
Alejandro Postigo, Carlos Marcuello, William Verstraetenl Santiago Sarasa, Tobias Walther, Anabel Lostao, Kerstin Göpfrich, Jesús del Barrio* and Silvia Hernández-Ainsa*
24-02-2025
