Friday, May 11, 2018, 3:30pm  **Note the time**
Location: Exploratory Hall 3301  **Note the location**

Divita Mathur
Naval Research Laboratory
Washington DC

DNA Self-Assembly: A Nanoscale Building Block for Bottom-up Fabrication

Abstract

The field of DNA nanotechnology has enabled scientists to realize and rapidly expand the ability to “build” objects at the nanoscale. With the help of a growing repository of DNA self-assembling tools and strategies, it is possible to create two- and three-dimensional structures ranging from a few nanometers to micron-scale in size. The cumulative properties of DNA, particularly its well-studied structural and physical behavior in response to varied conditions, its chemical and biological compatibility with a host of organic and inorganic nanoparticles, and the predictable base pairing principles have enabled DNA nanotechnology to be widely adopted in many scientific disciples, namely, single-molecular studies, photonics, plasmonics, synthetic biology, and healthcare.

In this work, I will highlight the state-of-the-art in the field of DNA nanotechnology with a focus on DNA self-assembly guided bottom up patterning of inorganic nanoparticles. Following that I will briefly talk about some of our ongoing endeavors in leveraging different DNA nanostructures as vehicles for assembling three candidate particles with nanometer precision, namely, DNA triangles with gold nanorods for the realization of architectures with interesting plasmonic properties, DNA icosahedra with quantum dots (QD) for enhancing control over downstream QD fluorescence-based applications, and DNA “bricks” with fluorescent molecules such as Cyanine dyes for expanding our understanding of long range energy transfer reactions.