Tuning Chemical DNA Ligation within DNA Crystals and Protein-DNA Cocrystals.

Biomolecular crystals can serve as materials for a plethora of applications including precise guest entrapment. However, as grown, biomolecular crystals are fragile in solutions other than their growth conditions. For crystals to achieve their full potential as hosts for other molecules, crystals can be made stronger with bioconjugation.

Modular Protein-DNA Cocrystals as Precise, Programmable Assembly Scaffolds.

High-precision nanomaterials to entrap DNA-binding molecules are sought after for applications such as controlled drug delivery and scaffold-assisted structural biology. Here, we engineered protein-DNA cocrystals to serve as scaffolds for DNA-binding molecules. The designed cocrystals, isoreticular cocrystals, contain DNA-binding protein and cognate DNA blocks where the DNA-DNA junctions stack end-to-end.