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Nearly thirty years after its inception, the field of DNA-programmed colloidal self-assembly has begun to realize its initial promise. In this review, we summarize recent developments in designing effective interactions and understanding the dynamic self-assembly pathways of DNA-coated nanoparticles and microparticles, as well as how these advances have propelled tremendous progress in crystal engineering. We also highlight exciting new directions showing that new classes of subunits combining nanoparticles with DNA origami can be used to engineer novel multicomponent assemblies, including structures with self-limiting, finite sizes. We conclude by providing an outlook on how recent theoretical advances focusing on the kinetics of self-assembly could usher in new materials-design opportunities, like the possibility of retrieving multiple distinct target structures from a single suspension or accessing new classes of materials that are stabilized by energy dissipation, mimicking self-assembly in living systems.
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Self-assembly–based posttranslational protein oscillators
Recent advances in synthetic posttranslational protein circuits are substantially impacting the landscape of cellular engineering and offer several advantages compared to traditional gene circuits. However, engineering dynamic phenomena such as oscillations in protein-level circuits remains an outstanding challenge. Few examples of biological posttranslational oscillators are known, necessitating theoretical progress to determine realizable oscillators. We construct mathematical models for two posttranslational oscillators, using few components that interact only through reversible binding and phosphorylation/dephosphorylation reactions. Our designed oscillators rely on the self-assembly of two protein species into multimeric functional enzymes that respectively inhibit and enhance this self-assembly. We limit our analysis to within experimental constraints, finding (i) significant portions of the restricted parameter space yielding oscillations and (ii) that oscillation periods can be tuned by several orders of magnitude using recent advances in computational protein design. Our work paves the way for the rational design and realization of protein-based dynamic systems.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1764269
- PAR ID:
- 10328952
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Science Advances
- Volume:
- 6
- Issue:
- 51
- ISSN:
- 2375-2548
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc1939
