DNA shaping up to be ideal framework for rationally designed nanostructures

A cube, an octahedron, a prism--these are among the polyhedral structures, or frames, made of DNA that scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have designed to connect nanoparticles into a variety of precisely structured three-dimensional (3D) lattices. The scientists also developed a method to integrate nanoparticles and DNA frames into interconnecting modules, expanding the diversity of possible structures.