My DNA cross design has arrived

Discussion in 'My Shapeways Order Arrived' started by 24182_deleted, Jul 29, 2009.

  1. 24182_deleted
    24182_deleted Member
    Check it out here.

    I included some electron microscope images of the original design "printed" in DNA at the 40nm scale.
     
  2. joris
    joris Member
    Wait, you're 3D printing DNA at the nanoscale? How did I miss this?
     
  3. 24182_deleted
    24182_deleted Member
    Yes we are. We are using a self-assembly technique called DNA-origami. The technique was discovered in 2006 by this guy at caltech (Paul Rothemund) he did some nice 2D designs like a famous DNA-smiley.

    In our lab (William Shihs lab at Harvard) we have been working on extending the technique to 3 dimensions. We can now build pretty complex designs, like the cross i uploaded here. The uploaded 3D model show how the main DNA chain winds its way through the design. On my webpage you can find some more info and links to our stuff if you are interested.

    Some day I hope people can order nanostructures just like they order "macrostructures" from Shapeways, wouldn't that be cool?

     
  4. joris
    joris Member
    Mwah, I don't know about cool, that would be nifty I guess.

    Kidding, that would be unbelievable!
     
  5. settinger
    settinger Member
    Wow, that was you? I saw that on Make:Blog and thought it looked amazing.
     
  6. gibell
    gibell Well-Known Member
    Excellent! What is the printing cost per cm^3 for DNA? :D

    Since DNA is linear or 1D, I find the term "DNA Origami" to be confusing because origami is about building things with paper, a fundamentally 2D object. Why not "DNA knitting" or "DNA crochet"?
     
  7. 24182_deleted
    24182_deleted Member
    Well, I'm not the original inventor or anything. Although I would say currently our lab is probably the best in the world in doing this kind of stuff . :rolleyes:

    Ahem, pretty high. The price per copy is ridiculously low though, since we routinely make about 500 billion copies in each run!

    Its a good point. "Knitting with DNA" is actually a term we like to use.