Computer-aided Design of Polyhedral DNA Nanostructures

For the past three decades DNA has been exploited as building material for programmable self-assembly of diverse supramolecular architectures. Since 2006, DNA origami method offers a bottom-up route to fabricate nanometer-scale objects with molecular weights in megadalton regime. Small polyhedral containers of DNA could potentially be used to transport drugs or diagnostic chemicals to cells. In order to fold these objects to a high yield this project aims to develop a new design paradigm that uses DNA origami. The design process involves the calculations of an optimal path for a DNA-strand to take through the structure. Using Python scripting in Maya (3D software) it is possible to calculate the best topology for polyhedral DNA nanostructures. The important part of this project is the complex programming of scaffold routing. It is mostly a computer based project where it is required to write a python program that calculates an optimal path for a DNA strand to take through a 3D design. The design consists of two versions of the polyhedral containers which possess the shape of subdivided icosahedral .The final stage of the project is experimental phase, where self-assembling of these two structures, based on the principles of scaffolded DNA origami method was carried out.