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Abstract Recent advances in nanotechnology have enabled rapid progress in many areas of biomedical research, including drug delivery, targeted therapies, imaging, and sensing. The emerging field of DNA nanotechnology, in which oligonucleotides are designed to self‐assemble into programmable 2D and 3D nanostructures, offers great promise for further advancements in biomedicine. DNA nanostructures present highly addressable and functionally diverse platforms for biological applications due to their ease of construction, controllable architecture and size/shape, and multiple avenues for chemical modification. Both supramolecular and covalent modification with small molecules and polymers have been shown to expand or enhance the functions of DNA nanostructures in biological contexts. These alterations include the addition of small molecule, protein, or nucleic acid moieties that enable structural stability under physiological conditions, more efficient cellular uptake and targeting, delivery of various molecular cargos, stimulus‐responsive behaviors, or modulation of a host immune response. Herein, various types of DNA nanostructure modifications and their functional consequences are examined, followed by a brief discussion of the future opportunities for functionalized DNA nanostructures as well as the barriers that must be overcome before their translational use. This article is categorized under:Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in BiologyTherapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Emerging TechnologiesBiology‐Inspired Nanomaterials > Nucleic Acid‐Based Structures
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Life at the interface: Engineering bio‐nanomaterials through interfacial molecular self‐assembly
Abstract Interfacial self‐assembly describes the directed organization of molecules and colloids at phase boundaries. Believed to be fundamental to the inception of primordial life, interfacial assembly is exploited by a myriad of eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms to execute physiologic activities and maintain homeostasis. Inspired by these natural systems, chemists, engineers, and materials scientists have sought to harness the thermodynamic equilibria at phase boundaries to create multi‐dimensional, highly ordered, and functional nanomaterials. Recent advances in our understanding of the biophysical principles guiding molecular assembly at gas–solid, gas–liquid, solid–liquid, and liquid–liquid interphases have enhanced the rational design of functional bio‐nanomaterials, particularly in the fields of biosensing, bioimaging and biotherapy. Continued development of non‐canonical building blocks, paired with deeper mechanistic insights into interphase self‐assembly, holds promise to yield next generation interfacial bio‐nanomaterials with unique, and perhaps yet unrealized, properties. This article is categorized under:Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in BiologyTherapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Emerging Technologies
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- Award ID(s):
- 1845053
- PAR ID:
- 10517858
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology
- Volume:
- 16
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 1939-5116
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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