Design and Single Molecule Characterization of Dynamic DNA Origami Assemblies for Signal Transmission

While there has been much effort to miniaturize manufacturing methods of robotics to micron and millimeter scale, there are few approaches to integrate sensing, communication, and actuation at the nanometer to micron scale. In an effort to create new DNA-based nanoscale robotic materials, we have created a DNA origami structure designed to communicate signals over a distance of several microns, and to do so faster by several orders of magnitude than hybridization based dynamic DNA structures. Signal transduction assemblies can be triggered specifically at one end by an external stimulus, and we aim to communicate a signal through a sequence of conformational changes of dynamic modules within a filament assembly. To characterize this structure, we have used ensemble FRET and TEM microscopy as well single molecule TIRF microscopy of FRET and quenching systems to capture dynamic fluctuations of a single communication switch element (or oscillator).