Engineering with DNA

Our end-goal is not a biological application, but an engineering aim: to create high-density information storage devices. The recent discovery of hachimoji DNA increases the number of base pairs available for encoding information, beyond what is possible with natural DNA. Our work entails creation of micro-containers to create, deliver, and place DNA origami, following the work of a previous IWU student, Andy Zhenghao Ding. Our “lab on a chip” is fabricated in a clear, transparent form of commercial silicone rubber (a polymer suspended in liquid, that can be made solid when a crosslinker is added). This allows for the formation of microstructures from molds, which we produce, using photolithographic processes. Oxygen plasma treatment creates a non-reactive Si-O-Si surface, compatible with processing biomolecules. Andy has provided a chip design that is aimed at producing very dilute, 5-micron droplets, each containing either zero or one single DNA molecule, along with other components necessary for the (programmed) formation of origami platelets. While the long-term goal entails using optical tweezers to control the placement of these nanocomponents onto a silicon wafer, our next steps involve validation of the microfluidic design, later to be followed by studies of the kinetics of origami formation