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Nanostructures

The manifold faces of DNA

Nature volume 440, pages 283–284 (2006)Cite this article

When it comes to making shapes out of DNA, the material is there, and its properties are understood. What was missing was a convincing, universal design scheme to allow our capabilities to unfold to the full.

As civilization has developed over the past 10,000 years, humankind has learned how to build larger and larger structures; over the past two decades, we have begun to learn how to build smaller and smaller structures. On page 297 of this issue1, Paul Rothemund presents a material step forward in this second arena: he describes a stunningly simple and versatile approach to the fabrication, by self-assembly, of two-dimensional DNA nanostructures of arbitrary shape.

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Figure 1: Give us a smile.

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  1. the Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    Lloyd M. Smith

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  1. Lloyd M. Smith
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Smith, L. The manifold faces of DNA. Nature 440, 283–284 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/440283a

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