Dynamic sensing at the nanoscale with DNA nanotechnology

DNA nanotechnology, especially scaffolded DNA origami, has emerged into a field that fabricates well-defined nanostructures with unprecedented geometric complexity and precision. This technology is proposed to eventually provide integral components for complex nanomachines and nanofactories. The power of DNA as a nanoscale building material is that it can be designed to self assemble into complex nanostructures that are held together by numerous k_BT-scale (0.025 eV) interactions. This allows DNA-based structures to be both globally stable and locally dynamic. Currently, DNA nanotechnology has a number of applications, including drug delivery, single molecule sensing, and templating of crystalline nanoparticles. However, applications rely largely on static nanomaterial properties. I will discuss the overall current state of the DNA nanotechnology field and our work on developing DNA based nanosensors, whose functionality relies on structural dynamics.