"DNA Origami" Could Allow For Controlled Drug Delivery 29
esinclair writes "As reported in Nature News, researchers have designed a method which allows DNA strands to be formed into cubes and other designs by oligonucleotides. The uses of this DNA origami are still being developed. One possibility for them is to be used as a drug-delivery system. The fact that scientists have also come up with a method to lock these structures and use 'keys' to unlock them would conceivably allow for a controlled delivery system."
Re:DNA is economical (Score:3, Interesting)
In contrast, DNA can be made more or less fully synthetically, and the misfolding problem is a non-issue: it can be melted down and re-folded nearly infinitely.
See I was thinking the opposite, that the misfolding problem would be much bigger (though I'm not a biochemist and you are.) What's making sure the DNA folds back into the highly ordered secondary structure you're aiming for? DNA denatures and renatures mainly in the pairing, the secondary structures seem like they're much weaker and more promiscuous than protein structure. I would expect the box to fall apart much easier than a protein box, but again, that's not an expert opinion.