National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, PR China.
Adv Mater. 2013 Jul 26;25(28):3905-14. doi: 10.1002/adma.201301450. Epub 2013 May 29.
The unprecedented development of DNA nanotechnology has caused DNA self-assembly to attract close attention in many disciplines. In this research news article, the employment of DNA self-assembly in the fields of materials science and nanotechnology is described. DNA self-assembly can be used to prepare bulk-scale hydrogels and 3D macroscopic crystals with nanoscale internal structures, to induce the crystallization of nanoparticles, to template the fabrication of organic conductive nanomaterials, and to act as drug delivery vehicles for therapeutic agents. The properties and functions are fully tunable because of the designability and specificity of DNA assembly. Moreover, because of the intrinsic dynamics, DNA self-assembly can act as a program switch and can efficiently control stimuli responsiveness. We highlight the power of DNA self-assembly in the preparation and function regulation of materials, aiming to motivate future multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research. Finally, we describe some of the challenges currently faced by DNA assembly that may affect the functional evolution of such materials, and we provide our insights into the future directions of several DNA self-assembly-based nanomaterials.
DNA 纳米技术的空前发展使得 DNA 自组装在许多学科中引起了密切关注。在这篇研究新闻文章中，描述了 DNA 自组装在材料科学和纳米技术领域的应用。DNA 自组装可用于制备具有纳米级内部结构的块状水凝胶和 3D 宏观晶体，诱导纳米颗粒结晶，模板有机导电纳米材料的制造，并作为治疗剂的药物输送载体。由于 DNA 组装的设计性和特异性，其性质和功能具有充分的可调性。此外，由于其内在的动力学，DNA 自组装可以作为程序开关，有效地控制刺激响应。我们强调了 DNA 自组装在材料制备和功能调节中的强大功能，旨在激发未来多学科和跨学科的研究。最后，我们描述了 DNA 组装目前面临的一些挑战，这些挑战可能会影响这些材料的功能演变，并对几种基于 DNA 自组装的纳米材料的未来发展方向提出了我们的见解。
