DNA origami for nanophotonics and molecular optics

• Speaker: 이승우 교수 (성균관대 나노과학기술원)
• Date: Tuesday November 15, 2016

The distinct field of DNA origami has dealt with the building up very small thing (sub 100 nm) by folding a long, single stranded DNA (over 8000 base, called by scaffold strand) with an assistance of a relatively short, single stranded DNA (less than 50 base, called by staple strand). In particular, scaffold DNA strand can be folded into almost any desired shape of nanostructures with a resolution comparable to the width of DNA double helix (~ 2.0 or 2.5 nm). More importantly, the structure of DNA origami can act as a molecular pegboard. For instance, the surface of DNA origami can be precisely decorated with a single stranded DNA (called by handle DNA), so as to capture the variety of anti-handle DNA-coated nanomaterials such as metallic nanoparticles, quantum dots (QDs), and fluorophores. By taking advantages of these DNA origami, we can heterogeneously integrate various nanomaterials (sub 100 nm) into the nanophotonic systems in unprecedented way. For example, metallic nanoparticles serving as a meta-atom can be arbitrary clustered and arrayed; thus, artificial phenomena including magnetism and high electric resonance can be achieved at optical frequencies; the heterogeneously integrated fluorophores and QDs can allow us to study the super-resolution optical microscopy far beyond diffraction limit. In this talk, I’ll briefly introduce these new wave of nanophotonics and molecular optics by benefitting from DNA origami nanotechnology.