DNA-GUIDED ASSEMBLY OF PROTEINS AS A PATHWAY TO AN ASSEMBLER

Bruce Smith and Markus Krummenacker
Nanodevices, 57 Glenside Way, San Rafael, CA 94903

Nanodevices, a start-up company-in-formation, is developing a method for the assembly and covalent linkage of proteins into specific orientations and arrangements determined by the hybridization of DNA attached to the proteins. This method, which we call DGAP (DNA-Guided Assembly of Proteins), requires the attachment of multiple DNA sequences to specific positions on the surface of each protein. It could be applied as well to non-protein components capable of functionalization at multiple sites with site-specific DNA sequences, but proteins are convenient building blocks for this method due to their size and surface chemistry, and the wide variety of functions and mechanical properties they can confer on the resulting assemblies, and especially since there are now several techniques for introducing designed or artificially evolved modifications into natural proteins of known structure.

We will describe the DGAP method, how it might be applied to the construction of a molecular robot capable of self-replication (an "assembler"), and why this pathway to an assembler is likely to be among the easiest starting from present technology.

Our interest in biomolecular motors is twofold: they might be harvested, conjugated to DNA, and incorporated directly into constructions made using the DGAP method; or their principles of operation might be imitated in the design of new assemblies of proteins.