CAREER: Nucleic Acid Engineering -- Integrating DNA into Biomaterial Research and Education

Cornell Univ - State: Awds Made Prior May 2010, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

0547330 Luo The overall goals of this research focus on Nucleic Acid Engineering -- integrating DNA into biomaterial research, not by just mimicking biomolecules, but by actually using biomolecules themselves, DNA in this case, to construct new materials and nanodevices. Departing from the conventional concept of DNA being just a genetic material, it is proposed here to deliberately ignore DNA's various genetic roles and instead to use DNA as a generic building block for the construction of novel DNA-based biomaterials whose architectures can be controlled at the nanoscale, and whose properties can be further tailored towards specific biomedical and biotechnological applications.