Patent ID: 8501923

Claim:
A nucleic acid nanostructure comprising one or more structural units, the structural unit comprising: (a) a scaffold which is comprised of a helical single stranded polynucleotide strand; and (b) a plurality of single stranded helper/staple oligonucleotide strands that are at least partially complementary to the scaffold so that the helper/staple strands anneal with the scaffold to form the structural unit, wherein the plurality of single stranded helper/staple oligonucleotide strands are comprised of at least two subsets of helper/staple oligonucleotide strands: (i) a scaffold bending subset of helper/staple oligonucleotide strands, wherein the scaffold bending subset of helper/staple oligonucleotide strands are comprised of one or more helper/staple oligonucleotide strands that bind separate regions of the scaffold in two or more regions to bring the separate regions of the scaffold together to form a bend in the scaffold; and (ii) a crossover and contact constraining subset of helper/staple oligonucleotide strands, wherein the crossover and contact constraining subset of helper/staple strands are comprised of one or more helper/staple oligonucleotide strands that bind sites in the scaffold to constrain crossovers and contact points between helices of the scaffold in order to form desired angles commensurate with the helical twist of the nucleic acid nanostructure, wherein at least a portion of the structural unit comprises parallel helices of the scaffold held together by a periodic pattern of crossovers spaced so that the distance between crossovers formed by two consecutive helper/staple oligonucleotide strands is an odd number of half turns apart, and wherein the nanostructure further comprises a conductive nanomaterial linked to the nucleic acid nanostructure.