Origami at the Molecular Level - WSJ.com
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JUNE 5, 2009 Gene Expression: Origami at the Molecular Level By ROBERT LEE HOTZ In an Effort to Make Assembly Lines of the Future, Researchers Fold DNA Into Shapes That Can Copy Themselves Article Email Video Printer Friendly Share: Slideshow Yahoo Buzz Comments (13) Save This MORE IN PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY » Text For centuries, masters of origami have been folding paper into cranes, dragons and other intricate shapes from the universe of possibilities in a single page. Combining art, chemistry and computer science, bioengineers are taking origami into a new dimension, where creations are a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair and materials are molecules that not only fold themselves but make endless copies of the result. In dozens of laboratories, these researchers are folding DNA into complex shapes, experimenting with molecular origami like apprentices learning to pleat their first paper swans. It seems playful, but it's a serious pursuit. Taking advantage of DNA's ability to assemble itself in predictable ways, researchers are toying with devices on an Bioengineers learn to fold DNA into complex shapes, which researchers hope will one day revolutionize manufacturing, medicine and computing. WSJ's Robert Lee Hotz reports on how scientists are manipulating DNA's chemical rules. atomic scale that can build themselves from scratch and then replicate for as long as there are raw materials. "This is a different kind of chemistry," says bioengineer Erik Winfree at the California Institute of Technology. Still in its infancy, it promises to one day make the molecular machinery of life into a factory production line. To showcase the possibilities, Caltech researcher Paul Rothemund and his colleagues made a Recent Columns gallery of attention-getting DNA devices. They made a smiley face so small it can only be seen with an electron microscope. They made a map of the Western hemisphere so tiny that one A Wandering Mind Heads Toward Insight nanometer -- the distance occupied by about five carbon atoms placed side by side -- Origami at the Molecular Level represents 125 miles. They wrote D-N-A with DNA in letters no bigger than a virus. Heady Theories on Contours of Einstein's Genius In February, chemist Nadrian Seeman at New York University and researchers at Nanjing University in China unveiled a DNA "crab" with pincers that can grab another molecule. In April, About Robert Lee Hotz Dr. Seeman demonstrated a DNA "walker" that can stride down a molecular path. Last month, a team at the Danish National Research Foundation built a DNA cube with a lid that can be opened, closed and then locked with a DNA key. "These are like peacock feathers," says Harvard University chemist William Shih. "By making these different shapes that are so Robert Lee Hotz is the Journal's science columnist. He was a Pulitzer finalist in 1986 for his coverage of genetic engineering issues and again in 2004 for his coverage of the space shuttle Columbia accident, and shared a 1995 Pulitzer Prize at the Los Angeles Times for earthquake coverage. He also has received national awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the intricate, we are strutting our stuff." American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Geophysical Union. He is an elected fellow of the The allure of the process is undeniable. American Association for the Advancement of Science; an honorary life member of Sigma Xi, The Research Society; and is a past Scientists have hawked the promise of View Slideshow 1 of 5 7/1/09 10:34 AM Origami at the Molecular Level - WSJ.com Paul W. K. Rothemund, Nature Caltech researcher Paul Rothemund and his colleagues made a gallery of attention-getting DNA devices, like this smiley face so small it can only be seen with an electron microscope. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124413997181485425.html nanotechnology for decades. Indeed, novel president of the National Association of Science Writers. He is a nanotechnology materials have been incorporated into hundreds of consumer director of the Alicia Patterson Foundation, which funds independent journalism projects around the world, and a products, from slick cosmetics to baseball bats made stronger with carbon nanotubes, distinguished writer in residence at New York University. accounting for $60 billion in annual sales, according to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies. All told, federal research on nanotechnology this year is a $1.6 billion enterprise. People Who Viewed This Also Viewed... On WSJ.com In My Network Surplus of Bachelors Spurs Scam in China Only now, however, is DNA nanotechnology edging into the mainstream. The field is based on a radically different notion of the molecule that we all have in common, which holds our genetic code. In a universal language of life, DNA is the biochemical text for our growth and development written in linked base pairs of adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine. In molecular origami, DNA is more a building material than an instruction manual. "The way we are using DNA is very different than the way biology uses DNA," says Duke University biomolecular engineer Thomas LaBean. "It is a little weird that we use it as a structural material, instead of a genetic material." Initial Findings in Crash Expected Making a Big Bet on Really Thin TVs Jet Sensors Probed in Air France Crash New Crop of Confusing U.S. Acronyms Video These master folders are harnessing a natural assembly line perfected by evolution. Left to itself, DNA naturally coils into the distinctive spiral ladder of the double helix, governed by rules that dictate how its four chemical base units bind to each other: adenine automatically links to thymine, and cytosine to guanine. By manipulating these chemical rules, the researchers can program DNA to fold into almost any pattern they can conceive -- at least in theory -- which will then copy its new form almost indefinitely. Mossberg Solution: Reviewing The RealPlayer SP 2:01 "The only thing that is really good at this is nature," says Dr. Shih. "So we copy nature. We stick More in Personal Technology with the DNA double helix and treat it like Lego bricks. You can imagine trillions and trillions of these bricks coming together into something the size of a human hair." To be sure, folding is itself a form of information. The crease patterns of conventional origami can reveal subtle geometric relationships. In biology, folding also affects function. 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Korea Large Corn Crop Lowers Prices More Headlines 2 of 5 7/1/09 10:34 AM Origami at the Molecular Level - WSJ.com More Science Videos Dissecting the Genius of Einstein's Brain Ocean Acidificaton Threatening Coral Reefs Looking Through Galileo's Lens http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124413997181485425.html Proteins, for example, control all the cellular processes in our body but won't work properly unless they first can fold themselves into the correct three-dimensional shape. If they misfold, the flaws can cause serious health problems, such as Alzheimer's disease or cancer. The folding techniques being perfected in DNA origami may one day help scientists to better understand and correct such protein folding errors. So far, protein origami is well out of reach. In the meantime, DNA folding is challenge enough. "It is much more difficult to program a protein than DNA," says Dr. LaBean. "It is easier to build something out of DNA because Ebbe Sloth Andersen, Nature Scientists at the Danish National Research Foundation used DNA origami to construct a box out of helices with a lockable lid and keys. we understand the rules." The original idea of using DNA as building material appeared in a daydream. In 1980, Dr. Recommended Reading Seeman was sipping a Bass Ale in a campus Scientists at Caltech are studying DNA origami. pub at the State University of New York in Albany and musing about molecular structure. In Nature, Harvard University researchers reported a new way to fold DNA in "SelfAssembly of DNA into Nanoscale ThreeDimensional Shapes." For no apparent reason, as he recalls it today, he thought of a picture by Dutch artist M.C. Researchers at the Danish National Research Foundation reported on "Self-Assembly of a Nanoscale DNA Box With a Controllable Lid." New York University chemist Ned Seeman, who originated this field, discusses "DNA Engineering and Its Application to Nanotechnology" in the journal Nanotechnology. In Science, he reported on making a two-legged walker from a strand of DNA in "A Bipedal DNA Brownian Motor With Coordinated Legs." Escher, whose work explores exotic geometry. Then into his mind there popped a way to make Escher's patterns from strands of DNA. Today, 40 laboratories are exploring the ramifications. Even so, it could easily be decades before anyone can translate such fundamental control over DNA assembly into anything useful. "DNA origami is still really quite immature," The National Nanotechnology Initiative coordinates federal nanotechnology research and development. says Dr. Rothemund at Caltech, who is A report from the National Research Council assessed the government's plan for research on the potential health and environmental risks posed by nanomaterials. of control over how to integrate these structures with other man-made things." pioneering the technique. "We can make a lot of different structures, but we don't have a lot Others are convinced that DNA nanotechnology is about to get serious. "We are trying to move from art into real technology," says Dr. LaBean. In a key development last month, Dr. Shih and other Harvard researchers for the first time showed how to use DNA to build almost any three-dimensional shape. As part of their construction kit, the research team also released design software that lets someone with no prior experience or special expertise program complex DNA structures with only a day's practice. In essence, they found a way to program DNA so it will form sheets that fold into thick volumes of pleats like an accordion bellows. In a process more like a recipe for bouillon than a blueprint for the future of technology, they stirred these molecules into a solution of salts, covered the pot and let it simmer for a week, until the molecules had finished folding. From the resulting broth, they fished billions of familiar shapes: Depending on the molecular programming, the strands of DNA had assembled themselves into three-dimensional square nuts, blocks, hollow bottles and stacked cross bars. "These are real breakthroughs," says Dr. Winfree, who was not involved in the project. "The important thing here is not that a particular object was built, but that there is a systematic way to build many different things. What's being demonstrated is a capacity to manipulate matter in an unprecedented way." In their hands, DNA is a shape of things to come. Robert Lee Hotz shares reading suggestions, reader comments and more photos at 3 of 5 7/1/09 10:34 AM Origami at the Molecular Level - WSJ.com http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124413997181485425.html WSJ.com/Currents. See a video on DNA origami at WSJ.com/Video. Write to sciencejournal@wsj.com. Write to Robert Lee Hotz at sciencejournal@wsj.com Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A11 Email Printer Friendly MORE IN PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY Order Reprints Share: Sponsored Links Brand New BlackBerry® Everything You Need. Anywhere You Go. 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