Membrane-targeted DNA frameworks with biodegradability recover cellular function and morphology from frozen cells.

Cell freezing is critical for the long-term preservation of biological materials, but is limited by the cytotoxicity and inefficacy of conventional cryoprotective agents, such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Here, we introduce DNA frameworks (DFs) as a nanoengineered programmable class of cryoprotectants designed to address these challenges. The DFs feature a programmable scaffolded structure offering large flexible wireframe contacts, cellular target ability, and biodegradability.

A long-staple design approach towards the scalable production of scaffolded DNA origami.

Scaffolded DNA origami enables the programmable construction of nanoscale structures through the hybridization of a long single-stranded scaffold with hundreds of short staple strands. However, the reliance on numerous synthetic oligonucleotides remains a key barrier to scalable and cost-effective production of DNA nanostructures. In this study, we introduce a long-staple design strategy that extends the length of individual staple strands to 100-200 nucleotides (nt), thereby reducing the total number of strands required while maintaining assembly efficiency and structural fidelity.

Elasticity of Swollen and Folded Polyacrylamide Hydrogel Using the MARTINI Coarse-Grained Model.

One of the key advantages of using a hydrogel is its superb control over elasticity obtained through variations of constituent polymer and water. The underlying molecular nature of a hydrogel is a fundamental origin of hydrogel mechanics. In this article, we report a Polyacrylamide (PAAm)-based hydrogel model using the MARTINI coarse-grained (CG) force field.

DNA Hydrogels with Programmable Condensation, Expansion, and Degradation for Molecular Carriers.

Molecular carriers are necessary for the controlled release of drugs and genes to achieve the desired therapeutic outcomes. DNA hydrogels can be a promising candidate in this application with their distinctive sequence-dependent programmability, which allows precise encapsulation of specific cargo molecules and stimuli-responsive release of them at the target. However, DNA hydrogels are inherently susceptible to the degradation of nucleases, making them vulnerable in a physiological environment.

Harnessing a paper-folding mechanism for reconfigurable DNA origami.

The paper-folding mechanism has been widely adopted in building of reconfigurable macroscale systems because of its unique capabilities and advantages in programming variable shapes and stiffness into a structure. However, it has barely been exploited in the construction of molecular-level systems owing to the lack of a suitable design principle, even though various dynamic structures based on DNA self-assembly have been developed. Here we propose a method to harness the paper-folding mechanism to create reconfigurable DNA origami structures.