DNA NANOTECNOLOGY

The concept of DNA nanotechnology was invented by Nadrian Seeman in early 1980s.A crystallographer, Seeman was frustrated with the haphazardness and guesswork involved with crystallizing certain molecules. In fall 1980, while at a campus pub, Seeman was inspired by the M. C. Escher woodcut Depth to realize that a three-dimensional DNA lattice could be used to orient target molecules, simplifying their crystallographic study. In 1991, Seeman's laboratory published the synthesis of a cube made of DNA, the first three-dimensional nanoscale object, for which he received the 1995 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, which was followed by a DNA truncated octahedron. However, it soon became clear that these objects were not rigid enough to form three-dimensional lattices.
Seeman developed the more rigid "DX" motif, and in collaboration with Erik Winfree, in 1998 published the creation of two-dimensional lattices of DX tiles. These tile-based structures had the advantage that they provided the capability to implement DNA computing, which was demonstrated by Winfree and Paul Rothemund in 2004, and for which they shared the 2006 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology.
The field has continued to branch out. The first DNA nanomachine—a motif which changes its structure in response to an input—was demonstrated in 1999. Nanoarchitecture, first proposed by Seeman in 1987, was beginning to be demonstrated by 2006. Also in 2006, Rothemund first demonstrated the new DNA origami technique for easily and robustly creating folded DNA molecules of any shape. In 2009, Seeman published the synthesis of a three-dimensional lattice, nearly thirty years after he had set out to do so.