Download or read book DNA Nanostructures as Platforms for Chemical Transformations written by Tuan Trinh and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "DNA is an exceptional material for bottom-up assembly of nanostructures with arbitrary shapes and high level of complexity due to its programmability, predictability and biocompatibility. Variety of well-defined DNA nanostructures ranging from a few nanometers to microns can be constructed with unparalleled precision and control. Beyond the self-assembly perspective, chemists have discovered that DNA can provide an excellent template for chemical reactions with high selectivity because it can significantly increase the local concentration of appended reactants. This thesis aims to explore the possibility of using minimalist DNA nanostructures as templates for chemical transformations to generate unique DNA-hybrid materials. First, the use of DNA micelle as a new reaction platform to enable DNA functionalization with highly hydrophobic molecules in aqueous media is investigated. The hydrophobic core of the DNA micelle can act as a reaction auxiliary that facilitates the conjugation of complementary DNA strands to hydrophobic units. Due to the sequence-controlled properties of each component used for DNA micelles assembly, reactivity can be easily tuned and studied. Second, the use of DNA nanostructures for templating reactions is expanded further to two-dimensional (2D) chemical transfer of DNA strand patterns, from a multi-arm DNA junction to a small molecule. This “printing” approach is highly modular, and it allows the resulting branched DNA-small molecule can be controlled precisely in terms of DNA sequences, valency and directionalities (5’-3’). Finally, a three-dimensional (3D) DNA “printing” method using minimal DNA cages to well-defined polymeric materials is presented. The organization of DNA strands on these scaffolds creates DNA strand patterns that can be efficiently transferred to a crosslinked polymer core inside the cage with precise control over the number, directionality, geometry and sequence anisotropy of DNA strands. The resulting DNA-imprinted polymer nanoparticles can be programmed to assemble into asymmetric higher order structures using DNA hybridization. These unique DNA-hybrid molecules can find numerous potential applications. The work presented in chapter 2 opens an opportunity to synthesize a variety of DNA hybrid materials with hydrophobic molecules, which are useful in DNA and small molecule therapeutic delivery, diagnostics, nanopore formation and self-assembly. Branched DNA-imprinted small molecules demonstrated in chapter 3 can be useful in the field of DNA nanotechnology as building blocks for wireframe DNA nanostructures, branching staple strands in DNA origami and tunable templates for material organization. The DNA-imprinted polymeric particles in chapter 4 can serve as precisely-defined “multi-arm junctions” to create highly complex structures in a predictable manner. They can also be useful in applications such as drug delivery, barcoded diagnostic or building blocks for non-centrosymmetric polymer patterning. Overall, the approaches introduced in this thesis can be used to make functional DNA-hybrid structures, with an emphasis on simplifying synthetic efforts while retaining structural complexity"--