Nadrian C. Seeman

In 1980, Nadrian C. Seeman founded the field of DNA nanotechnology with the idea of using the information in DNA sequences to self-organize into prespecified nanoscale structures in three dimensions. He worked out the theory of assigning sequences to DNA strands so that they would self-assemble into target branched species, cubes, truncated octahedra, topological targets, DNA knots and Boromean rings. He developed motifs for both crystalline lattices and 2 and 3 state nanomechanical devices. He assembled two and three dimensional periodic arrays of DNA. He developed DNA nanobots, both clocked walkers and autonomous walkers. He recently achieved a “holy grail” - 3D macroscopic high quality crystals, possibly capable of holding proteins to attain x-ray resolution to 4 Å.