12
EVENT FORMAT
Keynote
2020
Januar y
12-2 3
DNA Nanostructures for Cellular Delivery of Therapeutics
DESCRIPTION
DNA nanotechnology has emerged as an exceptionally programmable method to organize materials. Most current strate-
gies rely on assembling a complex DNA scaffold, often containing hundreds of different strands, and using it to position ma-
terials into the desired functional structure. Professor Hanadi Sleiman’s research group has developed a different approach
to build DNA nanostructures. Starting from a minimum number of DNA components, they create 3D-DNA host structures,
such as cages, nanotubes and spherical nucleic acids, that are promising for targeted drug delivery. These can encapsulate
and selectively release drugs and materials, and accomplish anisotropic the organization of metal nanoparticles and pol-
ymers. They find that they resist nuclease degradation, silence gene expression to a significantly greater extent than their
component oligonucleotides and have a favorable in vivo distribution profile. They designed a DNA cube that recognizes a
cancer-specific gene product, unzips and releases drug cargo. As a result, thus acting as a conditional drug delivery vehicle;
as well as DNA structures that bind to plasma proteins with low nanomolar affinities, thus increasing stability in vivo.
In this lecture, Hanadi Sleiman will also describe a method to ‘print’ DNA patterns onto other materials, thus beginning to
address the issue of scalability for DNA nanotechnology. Finally, Hanadi Sleiman will discuss the ability of small molecules
to reprogram the assembly of DNA, away from Watson-Crick base-pairing and into new motifs.
SPEAKER Hanadi Sleiman
Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in DNA Nanoscience at McGill
University