Affiliations and Support
— research
Cells offer numerous examples of complex systems that perform specific tasks with remarkable precision and efficiency.
We aim to re-engineer these natural systems using the technique of DNA origami.
Our aim is to construct functional DNA origami nanostructures inspired by natural protein complexes.
Our aim is to use DNA origami to manipulate cellular membranes in vivo.
— inside our toolbox
These are the core techniques driving our research:
— DNA origami
— Single-molecule biophysics
— Transmission electron microscopy
— Fluorescence microscopy
— Cryo-electron microscopy
— Flow-induced dispersion analysis
A modular DNA toolkit for single-molecule biophysics_
van der Torre et al., bioRxiv 2026
Long, customizable DNA molecules are an essential tool for in vitro single-molecule biophysics. Here, we developed a modular DNA toolkit to create long DNA molecules with user-defined sequences. We show precise placement of local features, e.g. a DNA-origami structure, and illustrate the construct's utility in single-molecule visualization assays.
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Dilatable DNA origami nanopores as nuclear pore mimics_
Bertosin, van Herk et al., bioRxiv 2026
How can we study the nuclear pore complex from a simplified, bottom-up approach? In this work we combine DNA origami, single-molecule FRET, and fluorescence lifetime imaging to build dilatable and contractable dynamic nanopores coated with NPC proteins to study molecular transport through lipid membranes.
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The Team_
