Origami is the art of paper folding that has been practiced in Japan since Edo period (1603-1868), and then successfully introduced in the western culture. The goal of this art is to transform a dull piece of paper into sophisticated 3D sculptures by the sequence of folding and sculpting. Likewise Japanese origami, DNA origami is also a way of 3D-structures folding – folding in the nanoscale. In this technique instead of sheet of paper one uses hundreds of short DNA strands to fold a long circular DNA molecule (scaffold) into 3D DNA-based structures. In this post, I will try to convince you that DNA origami technique is nothing to be scared about. Frankly speaking, once you gain some basic knowledge and skills, it might be even easier to fold your fancy sculpture with DNA than using paper (at least if you have enough money and lab-facility to work with 🙂 ).
How about making your own DNA origami?
