LMI Seminar: Directing light by DNA origami nanostructures

Abstract:

DNA origami nanostructures allow for the precise placement of functional entities such as fluorescent dyes and metal nanoparticles as signal generating or enhancing units. Chromophores can be arranged to arrays with well-defined inter-dye distances thereby creating artificial light-harvesting antennas,[1] which can be further exploited as self-referenced sensors based on Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET).[2] By attaching gold or silver nanoparticles to the DNA origami nanostructures novel plasmonic nanostructures are formed in which light is focused into nanoscale cavities creating intense hot spots for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS).[3] In addition to the precise arrangement of nanoparticles resulting in different forms of nanolenses,[4] the DNA origami nanostructures also allow for a specific binding of analyte molecules exactly in the SERS hot spots.[5]

[1] L. Olejko, I. Bald, RSC Adv. 2017, 7, 23924. 

[2] Y. Choi et al., ACS Appl. Mater. Interf. 2018, 10, 23295.

[3] J. Prinz et al., Nanoscale 2016, 8, 5612.

[4] C. Heck et al., ACS Photonics 2017, 4, 1123.

[5] C. Heck et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 7444.