Young-Hoon Noh

While DNA is a genetic material, it is also an inherently polymeric material made from repeating units called nucleotides. Although DNA's biological functions have been studied for decades, the polymeric features of DNA have not been extensively exploited until recently. In this tutorial review, we focus on two aspects of using DNA as a polymeric material: (1) the engineering methods, and (2) the potential real-world applications. More specifically, various strategies for constructing DNA-based

Antisense oligonucleotides can be employed as a potential approach to effectively treat cancer. However, the inherent instability and inefficient systemic delivery methods for antisense therapeutics remain major challenges to their clinical application. Here, we present a polymerized oligonucleotides (ODNs) that self-assemble during their formation through an enzymatic elongation method (rolling circle replication) to generate a composite nucleic acid/magnesium pyrophosphate sponge-like microstr

Packaging multiple small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules into nanostructures at precisely defined ratios is a powerful delivery strategy for effective RNA interference (RNAi) therapy. We present a novel RNA nanotechnology based approach to produce multiple components of polymerized siRNA molecules that are simultaneously self-assembled and densely packaged into composite sponge-like porous microstructures (Multi-RNAi-MSs) by rolling circle transcription. The Multi-RNAi-MSs were designed to con

Multifunctional DNAsomes: DNA–lipid amphiphiles self-assemble into novel “DNAsomes”—liposome-like core–shell structures with subunits composed of branched DNA–lipid hybrid molecules. These DNAsomes can be precisely tuned over a wide range in terms of both size and surface charge. More importantly, DNAsome is a natural carrier of small interfering RNA (siRNA) due to DNA–RNA base-pairing, enabling efficient co-delivery of drugs and siRNA. The DNAsome represents a universal multifunctional drug vec

Due to powerful breakthroughs in nanotechnology, smart delivery mechanisms have rapidly emerged for use in diverse applications across biomedical research and therapeutic development. Recent efforts toward understanding stimuli-responsive strategies have led to substantial improvements in their conceptual application and <i>in vitro</i> efficiency. Because disease targets for therapy are often localized in specific cells, organs, or tissues, an enhanced permeability and retention (EPR)-based str

DNA secondary structures, such as dimers and hairpins, are important for the synthesis of DNA template-embedded silver nanoclusters (DNA/AgNCs). However, the arrangement of AgNCs within a given DNA template and how the AgNC influences the secondary structure of the DNA template are still unclear. Here, we introduce a noncanonical head-to-head hairpin DNA nanostructure that is driven by orange-emissive AgNCs. Through detailed in-gel analysis, sugar backbone switching, inductively coupled plasma m

Abstract Alginate–carrageenan (Al–Ca) complex films were synthesized and characterized. The Al–Ca ratio and the crosslinking agent type were important factors in determining the pore size of the complex film. The pore size decreased with an increasing carrageenan content and was reduced further by a crosslinking reaction with CaCl 2 . The most uniform and flexibile film was formed at an Al–Ca ratio of 6:4. The degree of swelling of crosslinked films increased with an increasing carrageenan conte

Greater understanding of the mutual influence between DNA and the associated nanomaterial on the properties of each other can provide alternative strategies for designing and developing DNA nanomachines. DNA secondary structures are essential for encapsulating highly emissive silver nanoclusters (DNA/AgNCs). Likewise, AgNCs stabilize secondary DNA structures, such as hairpin DNA, duplex DNA, and parallel-motif DNA triplex. In this study, we found that the fluorescence of AgNCs encapsulated withi

DNA has been employed as both a genetic and a generic material. X-shaped DNA (X-DNA) in particular has four branched arms, providing multivalent functionalities that can allow for simultaneous multiple crosslinking. Here we report the synthesis of four acrylate-functionalized X-DNA monomers that can be further photocrosslinked to form monodisperse and tunable DNA nanospheres. In particular, the size and surface charge of these nanospheres were precisely controlled in a linear fashion, simply by

RNA nanotechnology, including rolling circle transcription (RCT), has gained increasing interest as a fascinating siRNA delivery nanoplatform for biostable and tumor-targetable RNA-based therapies. However, due to the lack of fine-tuning technologies for RNA nanostructures, the relationship between physicochemical properties and siRNA efficacy of polymeric siRNA nanoparticles (PRNs) with different sizes has not yet been fully elucidated. Herein, we scrutinized the effects of size/surface chemist