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Nature Nanotechnology 3, 132 (1 March 2008) | doi:10.1038/nnano.2008.50

Self assembly: Design by DNA

Ros Portman

Most self-assembly techniques rely on the chemistry and charge of the building blocks involved, which can make it difficult to control the properties of the final structure. It has been known for a decade that if DNA strands are attached to nanoparticles, they can direct the self-assembly process, with the properties of the DNA rather than those of the nanoparticles determining the final architecture.