Posted: 1st September 2015

DNA origami is a technique that is used to create nanometre–scale shapes by folding strands of DNA. Writing in the journal Nature a group of researchers from the Departments of Physics and Computer Science at Oxford investigate how DNA origami folds. The paper reports on scientific findings that demonstrate the existence of efficient folding pathways – analogous to the folding landscape of proteins. Computer Science DPhil student Frits Dannenberg, who is supervised by Professors Marta Kwiatkowska and Andrew Turberfield, developed the folding model that was successfully used to predict the outcome of experiments. This research contributes to the rational design of DNA nanostructures and devices.

More information can be found at Oxford Science Blog: http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/science-blog

Nature paper:  http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14860