Yu Tokura

Title: Programming Supramolecular Architectures based on Proteins and DNA

Research description: DNA nanotechnology, especially DNA origami is one useful example of bionanotechnology. DNA origami is the self-assembly of two- and three-dimensional architectures at the nanoscale. Due to its highly programmable feature and various techniques for functionalization, DNA origami has many potential applications. In our study, we construct novel supramolecular architectures based on DNA origami and bioactive proteins. DNA origami and proteins can be programmed to assemble in a defined manner by choosing a suitable bioconjugation technique. Finally, the highly programmed DNA/protein supramolecular architectures give us a great possibility for applications such as biosensor, photosystem, cascade reaction, and fundamental studies to investigate the interactions between single molecules.