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Crystal Engineering: DNA in 3D
Professor Chengde Mao is adding an extra dimension to the practice of DNA construction. By making a triangular building block from three DNA double helices whose axes all lie in different planes. He and his team have been able to produce periodic assemblies that extended in three dimensions rather than two — resulting in the formation of macroscopic DNA crystals. DNA lattices could prove useful for a number of applications including organizing other biological macromolecules for crystallographic analysis, or serve as templates for nanomechanical or nanoelectronic devices.
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