DNA is a wonderful material for construction on the nanometre-scale. We use DNA as molecular glue and as structural material to build nanostructures in both two- and three-dimensions. DNA can also serve as the fuel for artificial molecular motors. The key to the usefulness of DNA is its ability to store information: the interactions that hold a nanostructure together or drive a device are encoded in the base sequences of the component strands. This allows us to form nanostructures by self-assembly.

Recent work in the Turberfield group includes the design and characterization of DNA tetrahedra, which can serve as rigid building blocks and as molecular cages; the development of DNA motors and fuels; and the application of DNA lattices to protein structure determination.

Publications

C. M. Erben, R. P. Goodman, A. J. Turberfield, Single-Molecule Protein Encapsulation in a Rigid DNA Cage, Accepted for Publication in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2006).

S. J. Green, D. Lubrich, A.J. Turberfield, DNA hairpins: Fuel for autonomous DNA devices, Biophys. J. 91, 2966-2975 (2006).

R. P. Goodman, I. A. T. Schaap, C. F. Tardin, C. M. Erben, R. M. Berry, C. F. Schmidt, A. J. Turberfield, Rapid chiral assembly of rigid DNA building blocks for molecular nanofabrication, Science, 310, 1661-1665 (2005).

D. Lubrich, J. Bath, A. J. Turberfield, Design and assembly of double-crossover linear arrays of micrometre length using rolling circle replication, Nanotechnology, 16, 1574-1577 (2005).

J. Bath, S. J. Green, A. J. Turberfield, A free-running DNA motor powered by a nicking enzyme, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44, 4358-4361 (2005).

J. Malo, J. C. Mitchell, C. Venien-Bryan, J. R. Harris, H. Wille, D. J. Sherratt, A. J. Turberfield, Engineering a 2D protein-DNA crystal, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44, 3057-3061 (2005).

J. C. Mitchell, J. R. Harris, J. Malo, J. Bath, A. J. Turberfield, Self-assembly of chiral DNA nanotubes, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 16342-16343 (2004).

P. Yin, H. Yan, X. G. Daniell, A. J. Turberfield, J. H. Reif, A unidirectional DNA walker that moves autonomously along a track, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 43, 4906-4911 (2004).

R. P. Goodman, R. M. Berry, A. J. Turberfield, The single-step synthesis of a DNA tetrahedron, Chem. Comm. 1372-1373 (2004).

A. J. Turberfield, J. C. Mitchell, B. Yurke, A. P. Mills, M. I. Blakey, F. C. Simmel, DNA fuel for free-running nanomachines, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 118102 (2003).

B. Yurke, A. J. Turberfield, A. P. Mills, F. C. Simmel, J. L. Neumann, A DNA-fuelled molecular machine made of DNA, Nature, 406, 605-608 (2000).