Programming colloidal bonding using DNA strand-displacement circuitry

Abstract

As a strategy for regulating entropy, thermal annealing is a commonly adopted approach for controlling dynamic pathways in colloid assembly. By coupling DNA strand-displacement circuits with DNA-functionalized colloid assembly, we developed an enthalpy-mediated strategy for achieving the same goal while working at a constant temperature. Using this tractable approach allows colloidal bonding to be programmed for synchronization with colloid assembly, thereby realizing the optimal programmability of DNA-functionalized colloids. We applied this strategy to conditionally activate colloid assembly and dynamically switch colloid identities by reconfiguring DNA molecular architectures, thereby achieving orderly structural transformations; leveraging the advantage of room-temperature assembly, we used this method to prepare a lattice of temperature-sensitive proteins and gold nanoparticles. This approach bridges two subfields: dynamic DNA nanotechnology and DNA-functionalized colloid programming.