Self-Assembling Materials Made from DNA-coated Colloids

(EPFL, June 24, 2013)

Novel self-assembling materials have been made using DNA-coated colloids in experiments by EPFL and University of Cambridge scientists. A colloid is a substance spread out evenly inside another substance, e.g. milk, paints and fog. Among their unique properties, colloids can aggregate spontaneously into well-defined structures, driven simply by local interactions between the colloid’s particles. In biological colloids, like DNA, self-assembly is a precursor to self-organization, which underlies many cellular structures. Nature Communications reports that the research team has discovered a technique to precisely control and direct the self-assembly of two different colloids by exploiting the selectivity of DNA base-pairing. This is of major interest in industry, since controlling self-assembly could foster new technologies, like smart drug-delivery patches or light-reacting paints.