Duke Professor Stefan Zauscher to give talk, May 30th, on new approaches to DNA assembly

On May 30th at 10 AM in the FIT seminar room, Dr. Stefan Zauscher will present his talk entitled, “New approaches to DNA assembly: From polynucleotide block copolymer micelles towards supramolecular self-assembly of DNA origami decorated with polynucleotide brushes”.

For the past month, Dr. Zauscher and CPI have been collaborating on their shared interest in methods, applications, and functionalities of polymer networks and assemblies especially in the life sciences. In his upcoming talk, Zauscher will detail his research group’s new approach to DNA assembly. 

This new approach is predicated on the idea of using DNA as a polymeric building material–said material would enable many applications within the bionanotechnology space– e.g. within biosensing, diagnostics, or for targeted drug delivery. However, in order to reach this potential, there must be stable nanoparticle (NP) delivery platforms made up of nucleotides or nucleotide analogues.

Zauscher’s group is working towards this goal of creating stable NP delivery platforms. This is done by using “terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase catalyzed enzymatic polymerization (TcEP) to synthesize amphiphilic block co-polynucleotides that self-assemble into micelles (~100 nm diameter).”

This new approach could potentially extend DNA nanotechnology enough to enable the organization of rationally-designed nanomaterials at the mesoscale.  

At his home institute, Duke University in Durham, NC, USA Dr. Zauscher is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. His research sits within the broad field of polymer materials science– but has always cross-collided with other disciplines- particularly in the fields aimed at solving (bio)interfacial problems at the nanoscale.

Link to Dr. Zauscher’s research group:http://zauscherlab.pratt.duke.edu/