A Reprogrammable System of DNA Origami Tiles Actuated with Electric Fields

DNA origami is a biomolecular assembly technique that has garnered attention for its versatility, programmability, and tunable properties. A promising area of development in DNA nanotechnology is reprogrammability, or the ability of the device to move to multiple, predetermined positions given a series of inputs, for the creation of DNA circuits. Reprogrammability offers a new level of sophistication through two-way shape memory to work previously done with specific assembly algorithms, though certain challenges still exist in DNA-based digital circuit design methods. Reactions of DNA tiles in devices may be unpredictable, increasing the percentage of computing errors and lowering the success rate of the device. In this project, we aim to computationally develop and model a DNA origami device with tiles tethered to a platform actuated by an electric field. We model the tether with the worm-like chain (WLC) model, of interest due to its consideration of persistence length. After this model is found to be accurate for the computational specifications of the tether, the Marko-Siggia equation is explored as a suitable framework for the stretching of the DNA polymer.