A simple method to reprogram the binding specificity of DNA-coated colloids that crystallize

TL;DR

This paper presents a rapid, ambient-condition method to reprogram DNA-coated colloids with custom sequences, significantly accelerating the design cycle and enabling versatile crystallization behaviors.

Contribution

A novel technique to quickly generate and modify DNA sequences on colloids from a single feed stock, reducing synthesis time from over a month to under an hour.

Findings

Particles crystallize as readily with new sequences as with chemically synthesized ones.

Particles can be converted into different building blocks by appending various DNA sequences.

The method enables rapid exploration of complex DNA sequence designs for colloid assembly.

Abstract

DNA-coated colloids can crystallize into a multitude of lattices, ranging from face-centered cubic to diamond and thereby contribute to our understanding of crystallization and open avenues to producing structures with useful photonic properties. Despite the broad potential design space of DNA-coated colloids, the design cycle for synthesizing DNA-coated particles is slow: preparing a particle with a new type of DNA sequence takes more than one day and requires custom-made and chemically modified DNA that typically takes the supplier over a month to synthesize. Here, we introduce a method to generate particles with custom sequences from a single feed stock in under an hour at ambient conditions. Our method appends new DNA domains onto the DNA grafted to colloidal particles based on a template that takes the supplier less than a week to produce. The resultant particles crystallize as readily and at the same temperature as those produced via direct chemical synthesis. Moreover, we show that particles coated with a single sequence can be converted into a variety of building blocks with differing specificities by appending different DNA sequences to them. This approach to DNA-coated particle preparation will make it practical to identify optimal and complex particle sequence designs and to expand the use of DNA-coated colloids to a much broader range of investigators and commercial entities.