Genetically encoding the spatial arrangement of DNA and proteins in self-assembling nanostructures

Function and activity of biomolecules often depend on their spatial arrangement. The method introduced here allows genetically encoding the spatial arrangement of proteins and DNA. The approach relies on staple proteins that fold double-stranded DNA into user-defined shapes. This thesis describes the development of staple proteins based on the DNA recognition of TAL effectors and presents experimentally derived rules for designing a variety of self-assembling nanoscale shapes featuring structural motifs such as curvature, vertices, corners, and multilayer helix packing.