Research

RESEARCH

DNA has emerged as a useful building block for the construction of various dimensional structures. DNA structures embedded with functionalised nanomaterials are emerging for various applications, especially for physical and biological applications. DNA molecules provide a readily programmable sequence design and undergo predictable intermolecular interactions which can lead us to investigate DNA algorithmic assembly and DNA data storage. Our laboratory mainly focuses on following four research topics;

  • Structural DNA Nanotechnology
  • Nanomaterial-embedded DNA
  • DNA Algorithm and Computation
  • DNA Data Storage

Structural DNA Nanotechnology

  • In the field of structural DNA nanotechnology, researchers create artificial DNA sequences designed to self-assemble into target molecular superstructures and nanostructures. The well understood Watson-Crick base-pairing rules are used to encode assembly instructions directly into the DNA molecules. As well as functioning as genetic material, over the past few decades, DNA has emerged as a useful candidate for the self-assembly of highly complex nanostructures. The molecular recognition ability, molecular stability among biomaterials, and structural rigidity of DNA molecules make them appropriate for use in the design and construction of various nanometer-scale structures and arrays, which are central to the growing field of DNA nanotechnology. The demands of increasing interdisciplinary research and specific applications require the development of multidimensional nanostructures made of simple but versatile DNA building blocks.
Various DNA Nanostructures

Nanomaterial-embedded DNA

  • The Over the past few decades, natural and synthetic DNA has been used as a construction material in the field of nanotechnology to engineer several multi-dimensional nanostructures of arbitrary shapes as well as simple duplexes. Owing to its significant features, such as self-assembly, programmability, and molecular recognition, DNA can be utilized as a nanoscale template for bio- and nano-materials (such as ions, proteins, drugs, and nanoparticles) which allows us to develop DNA-based devices and sensors with a simple and efficient fabrication methodology. Cosequently, the use of DNA in nanoscale research fields has been extensively studied and it is regarded as one of very promising materials for the future generation nanotechnology.
Characterization of Nanomaterial-embedded DNA

DNA Algorithm and Computation

  • Because of its inherent programmability, structural scalability, and molecular recognition characteristics, DNA algorithmic self-assembly has made remarkable contributions towards the development of molecular computers. It has been proposed as an efficient mechanism for autonomous computation and crystal growth for bottom-up fabrication of complex nanostructures. DNA algorithm and computation gained momentum from both theoretical and experimental perspectives after the seminal work on the Hamiltonian path problem. Subsequently, due to its massive parallelism and high-density storage, it has been employed to solve many interesting problems such as Turing functions and target-driven cellular automata. Further, it has also been used for the construction of various biological logic circuits by implementing single- and multi-logic gates into DNA base sequences.
DNA Algorithmic Patterns and Turing Computation

DNA Data Storage

  • Biological information in DNA is stored as a code recorded in the sequential ordering of the four chemical bases. The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism, similar to the way in which letters of the alphabet appear in a certain order to form words and sentences. Consequently, DNA is treated as a promising data storage medium due to its stability and information storage capacity. All available data can be stored in DNA sequences by mapping the digital information into DNA base sequences. We develop computer codes with error correction scheme that encode digital information into DNA base sequences and decodes the information back from DNA base sequences to a digital file.
DNA Data Storage System