Sprecher
Beschreibung
Nucleic acids are versatile biomolecules containing specific sequences of bases which define their properties and reactivity. The use of nucleic acids, and in particular DNA, is a promising strategy in the designing of advanced materials when selective responsivity is required. In this context, the fabrication of DNA-responsive hydrogels has been recently reported, exploiting standard photolithography to fabricate DNA-activated soft robots.
Here, a step forward in DNA-based technologies is proposed, employing Digital Light Processing (DLP) 3D printing to fabricate 3D hybrid hydrogels, and adding acrydite-modified DNA as comonomer in the photocurable formulations. The 3D printing process does not damage those groups and, additionally, their presence enables the triggering of the macromolecular structure in response to complementary DNA strands, leading to a controlled volumetric expansion through the hybridization chain reaction (HCR) process. Furthermore, by optimizing 3D printing parameters, well-defined complex objects can be fabricated employing minimum amounts of photocurable formulations (less than 100 µm). The possibility to fabricate multi-material structures is also demonstrated, in which modified hydrogels maintained their selective responsivity towards precise DNA sequences. This work opens new perspective in the realization of advanced DNA based devices, in which materials characteristics, 3D design, and advanced fabrication play synergistically.
