DNA nanotubes are able to house amyloid fibrils (insoluble protein aggregates), according to new experiments by researchers in the US and Australia. The resulting nanostructures might be used as model scaffolds for precisely assembling components for applications in bionanotechnology. DNA folding, now sometimes known as DNA origami, is a routine way to manipulate DNA molecules into various shapes and structures. It was first put forward, in theory, in 1982 by Nadrian Seeman of New York University and proved in experiments by his team nine years later. The specific origami technique employed in the work described in this story was first developed in 2006 by Paul Rothemund at Caltech, and involves forcing a large viral genome to bend by the addition of small synthetic DNA sequences in a solution. The shorter segments attach to the main genome and act as "fastening posts" that hold the DNA in a range of shapes such as squares, triangles and, in this case, tubes that measure just 20nm across. Amyloid fibrils are ordered, insoluble aggregates of protein often found in patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers. The fibrils are rod-shaped and are as strong as silk (with a Youngs modulus of as high as … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 4-Jun-2014 Contact: Jeffrey Norris jeffrey.norris@ucsf.edu 415-502-6397 University of California - San Francisco A 14-year-old boy's turnaround and quick recovery after mysteriously being stricken by brain-inflaming encephalitis -- which led to him being hospitalized for six weeks and put into a medically induced coma after falling critically ill -- shows that the newest generation of DNA analysis tools can be harnessed to reveal the cause of a life-threatening infection even when physicians have no suspects. The quick diagnosis and successful treatment of the adolescent just 48 hours after cerebrospinal spinal fluid and blood were received for analysis portends the broader application of powerful, "next-generation sequencing" (NGS) techniques in solving infectious disease mysteries, not only in cutting-edge research labs, but also in clinical laboratories accessible to hospital physicians everywhere, according to Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, a professor of laboratory medicine at UC San Francisco (UCSF). Chiu is senior author of the case study, published online in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on June 4, 2014. The workflow pipeline developed in Chiu's UCSF laboratory to streamline genetic sleuthing of disease pathogens with NGS dramatically cut the time between sample collection and actionable diagnosis and helped a medical team … Continue reading →