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Nature Materials 7, 98–100 (1 February 2008) | doi:10.1038/nmat2110

Biomolecular assembly: Dynamic DNA

William Shih

Building blocks of DNA self-assemble into nanostructures in a kinetically controlled way. The versatile molecular system can be programmed to perform diverse dynamic functions. Nanotechnologists, inspired by living systems, strive to design artificial biomolecular systems that show similar behaviour. One aspect of biological self-assembly they have found challenging to mimic in synthetic systems, however, involves the dynamic properties of natural processes.