Rational design to control the trade-off between receptor affinity and cooperativity.

Cooperativity enhances the responsiveness of biomolecular receptors to small changes in the concentration of their target ligand, albeit with a concomitant reduction in affinity. The binding midpoint of a two-site receptor with a Hill coefficient of 1.9, for example, must be at least 19 times higher than the dissociation constant of the higher affinity of its two binding sites.

Remote Electronic Control of DNA-Based Reactions and Nanostructure Assembly.

The use of synthetic DNA to design and build molecular machines and well-defined structures at the nanoscale has greatly impacted the field of nanotechnology. Here we expand the current toolkit in this field by demonstrating an efficient, quantitative, and versatile approach that allows us to remotely control DNA-based reactions and DNA nanostructure self-assembly using electronic inputs. To do so we have deposited onto the surface of disposable chips different DNA input strands that upon the application of a cathodic potential can be desorbed in a remote and controlled way and trigger DNA-based reactions and DNA nanostructure self-assembly.