Programmable Nanoscale Assembly

One of the fundamental problems in bottom-up assembly of nanomaterials is difficulty creating arbitrary designed architectures from functionally relevant nanoscale blocks. This problem limits how we build targeted materials, integrate nanoscale blocks and manufacture nanoscale devices.

Our efforts address this challenge by establishing methods for digital bottom-up assembly using programmable processes. We use nucleic acids as nanomaterials that can be addressed and prescribed in order to build complex multiscale organizations from inorganic and bio-organic nano-components. We employ programmable molecular interfacing, soft matter effects and inverse design principles for controlling desired equilibrium and out-equilibrium systems' states. The effort aims to establish practical and broadly applicable by-design material fabrication platforms based on digitizing self-organization processes.