Controlled Organization of Inorganic Materials Using Biological Molecules for Activating Therapeutic Functionalities.

Precise control over the assembly of biocompatible three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures would allow for programmed interactions within the cellular environment. Nucleic acids can be used as programmable crosslinkers to direct the assembly of quantum dots (QDs) and tuned to demonstrate different interparticle binding strategies. Morphologies of self-assembled QDs are evaluated via gel electrophoresis, transmission electron microscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering, and dissipative particle dynamics simulations, with all results being in good agreement.

Correction: Programmable RNA microstructures for coordinated delivery of siRNAs.

Correction for 'Programmable RNA microstructures for coordinated delivery of siRNAs' by Jaimie Marie Stewart et al., Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 17542-17550.

Functionally-interdependent shape-switching nanoparticles with controllable properties.

We introduce a new concept that utilizes cognate nucleic acid nanoparticles which are fully complementary and functionally-interdependent to each other. In the described approach, the physical interaction between sets of designed nanoparticles initiates a rapid isothermal shape change which triggers the activation of multiple functionalities and biological pathways including transcription, energy transfer, functional aptamers and RNA interference. The individual nanoparticles are not active and have controllable kinetics of re-association and fine-tunable chemical and thermodynamic stabilities.

Programmable RNA microstructures for coordinated delivery of siRNAs.

RNA is a natural multifunctional polymer, and is an essential component in both complex pathways and structures within the cellular environment. For this reason, artificial self-assembling RNA nanostructures are emerging as a powerful tool with broad applications in drug delivery and metabolic pathway regulation. To date, coordinated delivery of functional molecules via programmable RNA assemblies has been primarily done using nanosize RNA scaffolds.

Fluorescence Blinking as an Output Signal for Biosensing.

We demonstrate the first biosensing strategy that relies on quantum dot (QD) fluorescence blinking to report the presence of a target molecule. Unlike other biosensors that utilize QDs, our method does not require the analyte to induce any fluorescence intensity or color changes, making it readily applicable to a wide range of target species. Instead, our approach relies on the understanding that blinking, a single particle phenomenon, is obscured when several QDs lie within the detection volume of a confocal microscope.