Folding and Polymerizing DNA Origami in the Classroom
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Date
2025-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
DNA origami describes the process of folding a long, single strand of DNA, called the scaffold, using the addition of shorter strands of DNA, called staples. The staples bind discontinuously to the portions of the scaffold that have complimentary sequences to create a more complex shape for a variety of applications. These structures can be used in medicine, manufacturing, and robotics on the nanoscale. DNA origami is an interdisciplinary field and combines knowledge from different subject areas such as biology, chemistry, and engineering. With the versatility of DNA origami, it is expected that hands-on learning modules exploring the folding and polymerization of DNA origami structures have high educational value. DNA origami is typically folded in thermocyclers with temperature precision and can take up to 2.5 days. For simple structures, this has been reduced to 30 minutes for classroom applications. Water baths can be used in place of a thermocycler, and structures are analyzed on a MiniOne Gel rig to make these experiments affordable. This report focuses on optimizing the polymerization of DNA origami for classroom conditions by varying salt concentration, excess staple strand concentration, and temperature. Polymerization is a technique applied DNA origami to create higher-order assemblies and can be necessary to create dynamic DNA origami structures. Implementing this technique into classroom folding provides examples of complex topics like electron interactions and properties of molecular materials. These education modules will be introduced to undergraduate students through OhioMOD, an Ohio State student biomolecular design team, to assess their feasibility. Because most schools begin teaching the structure of DNA in the seventh year of primary school, these modules are designed for middle, high-school, and undergraduate classrooms.
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Keywords
DNA Origami, Nanotechnology, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, STEM Education