IGEM:Harvard/2006/DNA nanostructures
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Project Overview
- Our goal is to to design and implement molecular containers, which can be dynamically opened and closed by an external stimulus.
- The containers will be implemented as DNA nanostructures, which afford a significant degree of positional control and chemical versatility.
- As an initial proof-of-concept, we plan to use our DNA containers to demonstrate controllable activation ("delivery") of anti-thrombin aptamers.
- We expect that molecular containers could have several interesting scientific and clinical applications, such as
- Drug and gene delivery
- Bio-marker scavenging (early detection of biomarkers)
- Directed evolution (compartmentalized selections)
- Using multiplexing for combinatorial chemical synthesis
- Capture and stabilization of multiprotein complexes
- Protein folding (chaperones)
- Cell sorting
Container Designs
-
Design 1
hexagonal core, separate 1-ply lids -
Design 2
hexagonal core, separate 2-ply lids -
Design 3
rectangular core, continuous 1-ply lids