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"DNA Origami" Could Allow For Controlled Drug Delivery
esinclair writes "As reported in Nature News, researchers have designed a method which allows DNA strands to be formed into cubes and other designs by oligonucleotides. The uses of this DNA origami are still being developed. One possibility for them is to be used as a drug-delivery system. The fact that scientists have also come up with a method to lock these structures and use 'keys' to unlock them would conceivably allow for a controlled delivery system."
DNA Origami was given a comical name for a reason. This is just a curiosity. Maybe some day the technique will be used for something practical.. but more likely DNA synthesis technology will catch up and there will no longer be any need to "fold" an existing long single strand of DNA like a virus. It's actually more like "stapling" and that's how it is described in the literature, maybe they should have called it Milton Manipulation, but I guess few biologists would get the joke.
It's truly frightening that the vast majority of military spending that has gone into "nanotechnology" has been directed towards the Design-Ahead-ists, those who follow the wisdom of K. Eric Drexler. It's the new cold war, and its even colder than the last. Technology like DNA Origami and Ralph Merkle's continuing pursuit of STM/AFM techniques are literally the sparks that could ignite a Gray Goo Armageddon - or the abundant life.
How we know is more important than what we know.
For proteins, stability ranges across the whole spectrum. Some nanostructures fall apart if the salt concentration is just a little off, while others will be just fine near boiling: there are viruses that survive great in the geothermal features in Yellowstone.
You've got to admire TAQ, even if it never amplifies what I want :-) But that illustrates my point, proteins are of course versatile in structures whereas DNA is not. It doesn't seem like there's any protein component to these cubes, and nothing I know of in DNA can crosslink strands like cystein bridges (besides holliday junctions, and they don't seem to be using them here.) It seems like you could design a strand of DNA that theoretically would form a box based on kinks in the helix, but I don't see how it would be held together in real solutions.
I'm definitely going to have to read the real article when I have access.