Week 8| Nanotechnology and Art | DNA Origami

As an undergraduate structural biology researcher in Professor Hong Zhou's lab at the California Nanosystem Science Institute (CNSI), this week's lecture about nanotechnology really spoke out to me. While most of the scientific nanotechnology discussion regards the translation of research into medicine, I became interested to learn about the influence that nanotechnology has led to advancements in art. This week, we explored how nanotechnology influence the creation of art. However, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the literal creation of art down at the nano-scale level, particularly the material covered this week in Paul Rothemund's Ted Talk.

What the lay audience imagine regarding the future of "nanotechnology"

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG9P8DLuh0U>

While most people imagine nanotechnology is a futuristic endeavor, it is important to realize how the world of biological chemistry and material science has already set a precedence in the field.

The field of nanotechnology begins with the ability to first scale down measurements and detection down to the nanoscale level, particularly the atomic level rather than molecular level. The atomic force microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy are innovations that led this first step.

For the past year, I led a group of undergraduate students to compete for a bimolecular nanotechnology contest to fold DNA origami. DNA, which has inspired countless artworks in and of itself, can undergo chemical reactions to fold into a desired pattern. For our competition, our goal was to create the most unique and useful structure out of DNA. In the past people have created anything ranging from molecular robots to spiders and even computer from DNA as seen above. Creative designs such as the images below could be generated from designing DNA in a particular pattern and undergoing a one step chemical reaction. Essentially, art does not have to be limited to the canvas, or even petri dish!

Literal DNA Origami artwork where DNA is folded and used to create art at the nanometer scale

<https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&q=dna+origami>

Paul Rothemund's TED talk on DNA origami, which is the subject that prompted me to form a team to represent UCLA in a biomolecular nanotechnology competition at Wyss Institute, Harvard

A large part of my our comes down to reconstruct biological structures at a nano-scale level. Due to the small physical limitations of the samples I work with, they are usually only seen in black and white or better known as gray scale. Yet, a quick glance at any biology textbook would reveal proteins and bacteria in all sorts of colorful variations that can almost be described as artistic. After joining a nanobiology laboratory, I never realized the level of artistic creativity that was asked from me.

Here is an image of a viral protein assembly sample after reconstruction

Please check out the original published manuscript on rsc journal below:
<http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2008/jm>

A textbook like example of semliki-forest-virus capsid, one of the first viruses ever studied, displayed for viewing purposes after custom artwork generation from the original raw data obtained from structural reconstructions. This is an example of the artistic requirement for scientists. Color application and 3D appearance is based on modifications from original data.

<http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/style-illustration-of-semliki-forest-virus-1dyl-stock-graphic/121843605>

According to John Gallery, many of the artwork is inspired through watching nanoscientists at work. Thus, I cannot wait to see the type of artwork to be created as the field of nanotechnology climbs out of its infancy.

References:

"How Will Nanotechnology Change the World ? - Full Documentary."YouTube. STAR Documentaries, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG9P8DLuh0U>.

Rothemund, Paul. "Paul Rothemund: The Astonishing Promise of DNA Folding." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhGG__boRxU>.

Stella E. Aniagyei, Christopher DuFort, C. Cheng Kaob and Bogdan Dragnea, Self-assembly approaches to nanomaterial encapsulation in viral protein cages, J. Mater. Chem., 2008,18, 3763-3774 DOI: 10.1039/B805874C <http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2008/jm/b805874c#!divCitation>

"Surface Studies with a Scanning Tunnelling Microscope [english]." YouTube. Archimedes Exhibitions GmbH, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNEqRq6NyUw>.

Zhou, Hong. "The building of the Titan Krios | Electron Imaging Center for Nanomachines." The building of the Titan Krios | Electron Imaging Center for Nanomachines. N.p., 10 Aug. 2006. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <http://www.eicn.ucla.edu/titanbuildup>.