Researchers Report Largest DNA Origami To Date

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Researchers Report Largest DNA Origami To Date

Posted by timothy on Saturday September 20, 2014 @12:17PM from the never-date-origami-it-won't-respect-you dept.

MTorrice (2611475) writes Bioengineers can harness DNA's remarkable ability to self-assemble to build two- and three-dimensional nanostructures through DNA origami. Until now, researchers using this approach have been limited to building structures that are tens of square nanometers in size. Now a team reports the largest individual DNA origami structures to date, which reach sizes of hundreds of square nanometers. What's more, they have developed a less expensive way to synthesize the DNA strands needed, overcoming a tremendous obstacle to scaling up the technology.

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Eh, anyone here? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 13:32 · Score: 0

I have a pizza delivery for a Mr. I.P. Freely... ... ... Sure is quiet in here... ... ...
1. Re: Eh, anyone here? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 14:08 · Score: 0
  
  I think nobody gives a shit about scientists wasting other money peoples money by doing "DNA origami"...
  It sure does sound like a lot of fun, without any substantial benefits.
2. Re: Eh, anyone here? by dreamchaser · 2014-09-20 14:14 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  If you would bother to read before shooting off your mouth you'd see that there are plenty of potential applications. It's not just being done for the 'cool' factor.
3. Re: Eh, anyone here? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 14:23 · Score: 0
  
  I see some "potential applications", but nothing substantial...
4. Re: Eh, anyone here? by dreamchaser · 2014-09-20 14:27 · Score: 2
  
  Technology doesn't just magically appear. It is worthwhile research that if it pans out could have some really wide ranging medical applications.
5. Re: Eh, anyone here? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 14:31 · Score: 0
  
  The important thing is that this advance constitutes a 7-fold increase in wasted taxpayer money per DNA origami.
6. Re: Eh, anyone here? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 18:27 · Score: 0
  
  *yawn*
7. Re: Eh, anyone here? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-21 01:50 · Score: 0
  
  there's also nothing substantial in a newborn babe.
"Self-Assembling?" by Anna+Merikin · 2014-09-20 13:44 · Score: 0

DNA is magnetoresponsive. Magnetism itself is self-assembling, and since DNA has been shown to be magnetoresponsive http://www.nature.com/neuro/jo... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., it would be interesting to see if this origami folding can take place outside of the earth's magnetosphere, which has a magnetic harmonic at the same frequency as the resonance demonstrated by DNA.
Does anyone know anything about other self-assembling substances?
1. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 13:59 · Score: 0
  
  You're one of those Electric Universe trolls, aren't you?
2. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by rmdingler · 2014-09-20 14:01 · Score: 1
  
  No... what in the Universe could have assembled itself?
  Ah.
  
  --
  Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
  Ernest Hemingway
3. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 15:45 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  If you're going to claim that 'DNA has been shown to be magnetoresponsive', you might consider offering links that have at least something to do with DNA. It might also help to not post utter crap about Earth's magnetosphere having a 'magnetic harmonic', let alone 'at the same frequency as the resonance demonstrated by DNA'.
4. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by Anna+Merikin · 2014-09-20 16:22 · Score: 0
  
  I don't usually respond to ACs but cause you're dead wrong and call me a liar, here's both barrels..
  From the first link
  
  We found that extracellular fields induced ephaptically mediated changes in the somatic membrane potential that were less than 0.5 mV under subthreshold conditions. Despite their small size, these fields could strongly entrain action potentials, particularly for slow (~8 Hz) fluctuations of the extracellular field. Finally, we simultaneously measured from up to four patched neurons located proximally to each other. Our findings indicate that endogenous brain activity can causally affect neural function through field effects under physiological conditions.
  As to the 8 Hz magnetic resonance, see http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4..., which is the most nearly objective overview of this subject I can find right now. Wikipedia also has an article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
5. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 17:05 · Score: 0
  
  That's great. Specifically were in those three sentences from your first Nature Neuroscience link is DNA mentioned? Indeed, where in the paper is DNA mentioned at all? It isn't is either the main paper or supplementary information, so...?
  As to the Schumann resonance, you appear to not appreciate the difference between radio waves (i.e., electromagnetic radiation) as a real phenomenon and the claim that Earth's magnetosphere has a 'magnetic harmonic' as idiotic woo.
  You might perhaps read more closely the following paragraph from your skeptoid.com link:
  "Nevertheless, because the Schumann resonance frequencies are defined by the dimensions of the Earth, many New Age proponents and alternative medicine advocates have come to regard 7.83 Hz as some sort of Mother Earth frequency, asserting the belief that it's related to life on Earth, despite its being so tiny and lost among all the other, stronger parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Often we find that New Age beliefs are often based more on what seems emotionally satisfying than on sound science."
6. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 17:06 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  It doesn't self-assemble by magnetism, it self-assembles by hybridizing, Basically complementary bits of DNA pair up, and they like pairing up with complementary bits more then they like having the traditional double helix shape, so you can sort of weave with them.
7. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 18:16 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Given that the Schumann resonances have peak amplitudes of a few picoteslas, it seems highly unlikely that they affect DNA assembly.
8. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 20:24 · Score: 0
  
  I don't understand what's so incomprehensible about DNA being "self-assembling", DNA is a large molecular structure made of charged functional groups, which forms chemical bonds with each other, both by covalent and hydrogen bonds. It's not entirely true that DNA assembles itself, as it can only occur in water - which again is partially charged. That adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanosine with a sugar and phosphate backbone acquires a double-helix structure is no more magic than chlorine and sodium forming a crystal structure.
9. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-09-20 21:00 · Score: 2
  
  "Magnetic harmonic?" "DNA resonance frequency?" Nice try. You know, people here aren't stupid.
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
10. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-09-20 21:15 · Score: 1
  
  1. There's no mention of either Earth's magnetic field or DNA in the Nature article, demonstrating that you can bullshit people twice for the price of one. Neat!
  2. The fact that Earth's magnetic field has a documented history of significant changes, reversals, and even almost-disappearances for time periods way beyond the lifetime of any single multicellular organism demonstrates at least that the function of DNA isn't significantly disrupted by absence or presence of weak magnetic fields.
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
11. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by Hex4def6 · 2014-09-21 01:33 · Score: 1
  
  I think any magnetic forces will pale in comparison to chemical forces at that scale.
12. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by cinnamon+colbert · 2014-09-21 13:08 · Score: 1
  
  uh, aren't these usually bp conserved, so they are iso energetic ?
  if the net number of bp is reduced, where is the deltaG to make this go ?
13. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-21 16:49 · Score: 0
  
  The four amino acids used to encode DNA (those CGTA amino acids used to build codon tables) each have four attributes (neutral, acid, negative charge, positive charge).
  I wonder if this is how the whole DNA/RNA/enzymes genomic system got started in the first place? Lightning creates amino acids, which form themselves in long random combinations of DNA. Eventually, some bits of DNA get long enough to form basic enzymes/scissor shapes that are able to slowly self-reproduce by snipping off chains of amino acids that they need to reproduce. Eventually those enzymes get larger and larger and more "conditional" until they are able to become more programmable and have a program that consists of a loop of RNA. Eventually that evolves to RNA messages.
14. Re:"Self-Assembling?" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-22 03:04 · Score: 0
  
  A cell phone from the otherside of the room would start messing with your cells, and a solar flare would wipe out life.
Re:Tens of square nanometers... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 14:19 · Score: 1

Funny then how so many left wingers are so quick to spout ad hominem, vitriolic attacks. They must have small penises too! Maybe BOTH sides do! Perhaps it's time for a third party without all the hidebound rigid quasi-religious dogma and hatred!
Meh. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 14:40 · Score: 0

Call me when it can fold DNA into the shape of a paper swan.
Re:Tens of square nanometers... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 15:12 · Score: 0

As someone that has been raped five times and all five times were by Republicans, you are correct. It didn't hurt because their kind is so small. Of course that's why they're so violent and racist. Being a male and having a small penis drives you insane. That is why we should never vote for a male for public office unless we know he has more than a 2" penis.
Addendum by Anna+Merikin · 2014-09-20 16:41 · Score: 0

A better link -- http://montagnier.org/IMG/pdf/...
Satisfied?
1. Re:Addendum by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 17:10 · Score: 1
  
  No - much like your earlier claims, that work is utter idiocy. You might consider reviewing some criticism regarding it here:
  http://slashdot.org/story/11/01/13/0017256/nobel-prize-winner-says-dna-performs-quantum-teleportation
2. Re:Addendum by cinnamon+colbert · 2014-09-21 13:07 · Score: 1
  
  is this the same montagnier who claimed he could do immunology over the telephone ? (twisted pair, back in the day)'
  if you are a troll, congrats , you have gotten a lot of people riled up about your nonsense; if you are serious, politely, let me say that you are barking up the wrong tree here
  the nature article is about neuronal membranes, nothing to do with DNAassembly
  you might consider that people spend hours inside MRIs, where the magnetic field is ~~ 10,000 times that of the earth
  (oh, wait, now you have MRI magnetoresponsive DNA induced tumorigenisis....)
Re:Tens of square nanometers... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-20 21:35 · Score: 0

Funny then how so many left wingers are so quick to spout ad hominem, vitriolic attacks. They must have small penises too! Maybe BOTH sides do! Perhaps it's time for a third party without all the hidebound rigid quasi-religious dogma and hatred!
You mean the BBC Party?
like a virus drill by doug141 · 2014-09-21 01:53 · Score: 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
I work on DNA by cinnamon+colbert · 2014-09-21 13:02 · Score: 0

and the idea of a lambda/M13 hybrid is cute, I bet dollars to donuts that this is not an industrial scale process by any means; long DNA (>10,000) is hard to work with and unstable
(wild type lambda DNA from, say, N E Biolabs, is about 250 dollars a *milligram*)
anything priced in milligrams is not, imo, an industrial process
it is true that much shorter DNA is sold for, afaik, macular degeneration, and whole virus particles are also used; this is not the same as origami things
anyway, DNA is temperature and pH sensitive, needs to be kept wet, and is attacked by numerous microorganisms, which secrete enzymes that chew up DNA, a good source of valuable, scarce nutrients like Phosphorus and reduced Nitrogen
Phage lambda and M13 propagate in E coli, a gram neg organism that makes pyrogen; purification of injection grade material from gram negatives is not a trivial task
The idea that DNA will be useful for almost anything but niche markets is absurd
there is something about bio stuff (DNA, cancer, stem cells) that just acerbates the buck rodgers teen ager in every slashdotter
1. Re:I work on DNA by RockDoctor · 2014-09-22 23:21 · Score: 1
  
  I see your points, but I'm also seeing a wet chemistry (if not exactly "bucket" chemistry) process that is producing what looks like pretty flat (nanometre level of flatness)surfaces in quite substantial areas. And the electrical properties of that substrate can be controlled to a significant degree. There's potential there for micro-mechanical systems, or chip substrates. Quite a lot of interesting potential there.
  Hypothesizing that you could use this to produce low-power electronics for, say a wireless environmental sensor of some sort, how does the idea of environmental sensors that are inherently biodegradable on a months-to-years time scale grab you?
  
  --
  Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
2. Re:I work on DNA by Anonymous Coward · 2014-09-23 03:41 · Score: 0
  
  I've worked on this sort of thing
  there are many many companies big and small, that have tried to do electonics industry nanometer flat scale stuff
  all those companies are either out of biz or doing something else, which sort of tells you something:
  the incredible, truly mind boggling technology of the electronics (wafer fab) industry looks seductive, but...
  but you may be right, that there is some sort of sensor thing that is viable,
  it is really hard to say, but DNA is $ and degrades, and large, single strand dna degrades even faster
  but, you know, it is a free country, so let a 1,000 startups bloom