Science 338, 1177–1183 (2012)

For some years, nanostructures made entirely of DNA or RNA through one-pot reactions, either from long strands that fold to a predesigned shape (DNA origami) or from the self-assembly of small structures (DNA tiles), have become more and more complex. However, the DNA origami approach requires a new design and synthesis procedure for every nanostructure, and DNA tiles have only produced two-dimensional shapes. Yonggang Ke and colleagues have now synthesized 102 distinct three-dimensional shapes — solid, hollow or with varied surface patterns — from DNA bricks, which are helicoidal, short single-DNA strands each having four sticky ends (which can be of the type head or complementary tail). Hundreds of bricks with pre-designed but unpurified sequences of heads and tails self-assemble into the prescribed shape in one step by simply mixing them together in approximately equal ratios. Although at present larger nanostructures lead to lower yields, the programmability, generality, robustness and modularity of the brick approach should make it attractive to applications where geometrical sophistication and (bio)chemical specificity are required.