Specialized iNANO lecture by Senior Researcher Nicolas Schabanel

Senior Researcher Nicolas Schabanel, CNRS - Centre national de la recherche scientifique, France 

ENSnano: a geometry-based 3D modelling software for designing complex DNA/RNA nanostructures

Since the 1990s, increasingly complex nanostructures have been reliably obtained out of self-assembled DNA strands: from ``simple'' 2D shapes to 3D gears and articulated nano-objects, and even computing structures. The success of the assembly of these structures relies on a fine tuning of their structure to match the peculiar geometry of DNA helices. Various softwares have been developed to help the designer.

In this talk, we introduce our new software ENSnano which aim at conciliating the different approaches of preexisting softwares by providing a slick fast-responding interface combining live-editable 2D and 3D views together with new concepts to help the designer. Furthermore we will present new paradigms to design DNA origamis with arbitrary 3D curvatures. These paradigms are now part of ENSnano software and we have used them to create increasingly complex curvy DNA nanostructures with high yield and with high accuracy. These structures were evaluated by automatic force microscopy (AFM), negative stain transmission electronic microscopy (TEM), and cryogenic electron microscopy (3D cryoEM).