The fundament of any DNA origami structure is an about 8000 bases long single-stranded DNA molecule, so called “scaffold strand”, which can be isolated from a bacteriophage.

By adding a couple of short DNA molecules, so called “staple strands”, which have complementary sequences to defined parts of the scaffold strand, selected parts of the scaffold can be connected to each other.

Under the right conditions this connection process runs as self-assembly automatically and billion-fold in the reaction tube.

A clever choice of the staple strands allows a “folding” of the scaffold strand into any given geometry. The “molecular programming” of this geometry is just carried out by the free selectable DNA sequences of the staples. According to the known paper folding technique this structure is called “DNA origami structure”.

The fact, that for every used staple strand its accurate target position in the folded DNA origami structure is known, is applied by GATTAquant to place dye molecules on exact positions on an origami.

Therefore the respective staples have to be labeled with the desired dye before adding to the reaction tube.

This innovation allows the application of DNA origami structures as “molecular breadboards” for defined positioning of dye molecules on the nanoscale. This facilitates the high flexibility and precision of all GATTAquant products.