DNA nanotechnology and DNA computing

Andreas Herrmann

Andreas Herrmann is a German polymer chemist and bioengineer working on DNA-based hybrid materials and polymer mechanochemistry, holding a chair at RWTH Aachen University since 2017.

Andrew Turberfield

Andrew J. Turberfield is an Emeritus Professor of Physics and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, who builds molecular machines from DNA; his DNA motor navigated a four-route track network.

Björn Högberg, born 1975, is a Swedish DNA nanotechnology and synthetic biology researcher, professor at Karolinska Institutet, known for DNA origami methods and the 2019 Göran Gustafsson Prize in Chemistry.

Chengde Mao

Chengde Mao is a chemist and professor at Purdue University whose research centers on DNA nanotechnology, including self-assembling DNA nanostructures, DNA machines, and algorithmic self-assembly that performs computation.

Chris L. Dwyer

Chris L. Dwyer is a computer engineer and nanotechnologist at Duke University who builds computing, sensing, and storage devices from self-assembled DNA nanostructures, and received the 2008 Presidential Early Career Award.

Oct 22, 2026

DNA-guided nanoparticle assembly

DNA-guided nanoparticle assembly is a nanotechnology method in which DNA strands attached to nanoparticles act as programmable bonds that direct particles into ordered crystals with nanoscale precision.

Ebbe Sloth Andersen

Ebbe Sloth Andersen is a Danish bioengineer at Aarhus University known for the 2009 DNA origami box with a controllable lid and for inventing RNA origami.

Erik Winfree

Erik Winfree is a computer scientist and bioengineer at Caltech, known for algorithmic self-assembly of DNA, DNA strand displacement circuits, and a 2000 MacArthur Fellowship.

Famulok Michael

Michael Famulok is a German biochemist and chemical biologist at the University of Bonn, professor at the LIMES Institute since 2002, known for aptamers and DNA nanomachines.

Francesco Ricci (Italian chemist)

Francesco Ricci is an Italian chemist and full professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, known for DNA-based electrochemical biosensors and for defining dissipative DNA nanotechnology.

Friedrich C. Simmel

Friedrich C. Simmel is a professor of physics at the Technical University of Munich working in DNA nanotechnology, known for a nanoscale robotic arm controlled by electric fields.

Hanadi Sleiman

Hanadi F. Sleiman is a Canadian chemist at McGill University known for the first DNA cages and nanotubes that release drug cargo on biological stimuli.

Hao Yan

Hao Yan (颜灏) is a chemist working in structural DNA nanotechnology, Regents Professor at Arizona State University and director of its Center for Molecular Design and Biomimetics.

Hendrik Dietz

Hendrik Dietz, born 1977 in Dresden, is a German biophysicist and professor at the Technical University of Munich known for designing and mass-producing DNA origami.

Jinglin Fu

Jinglin Fu is a biochemist and bionanotechnologist at Rutgers University–Camden who uses self-assembled DNA nanostructures to control multi-enzyme reaction cascades, and received a Presidential Early Career Award.

John Reif

John H. Reif (born 1951 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American computer scientist at Duke University, a pioneer in DNA computing and molecular programming, and a fellow of IEEE, ACM, and AAAS.

K. Eric Drexler

K. Eric Drexler, also known as Kim Eric Drexler, is an American engineer, born in 1955, who founded molecular nanotechnology; his 1986 book Engines of Creation popularized it.

Kurt Vesterager Gothelf

Kurt Vesterager Gothelf, often published as Kurt V. Gothelf, is a Danish chemist and professor at Aarhus University whose research combines organic chemistry with DNA nanotechnology and biosensors.

Matthew Lakin

Matthew Lakin is a computer scientist at the University of New Mexico who builds molecular circuits from synthetic DNA and received a 2025 Presidential Early Career Award.

Milan Stojanovic

Milan Stojanovic, also known as Milan N. Stojanović, is a Serbian-born organic chemist at Columbia University working in DNA nanotechnology and computing, known for MAYA and molecular spiders.

Peng Yin

Peng Yin (尹鹏) is a scientist who engineers DNA and RNA as programmable materials, leading a Harvard Medical School and Wyss Institute lab known for DNA bricks and DNA-PAINT imaging.

Philip Tinnefeld

Philip Tinnefeld is a physical chemist and Chair of Physical Chemistry at LMU Munich, known for co-inventing dSTORM and DNA-PAINT and for DNA origami nanorulers.

Rebecca Schulman

Rebecca Schulman is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Johns Hopkins University whose lab programs DNA circuits and self-assembling nanostructures to compute and actuate soft materials.

Shawn Douglas

Shawn Michael Douglas is an American DNA nanotechnology researcher and associate professor at UCSF, known for 3D DNA origami, a logic-gated DNA nanorobot targeting cancer cells, and cadnano.

Stefan Howorka

Stefan Howorka is Professor of Chemical Biology at University College London, where he builds DNA origami nanopores that span lipid membranes for biosensing and synthetic biology.

Tim Liedl

Tim Liedl is a German physicist and professor of experimental physics at LMU Munich who works on DNA nanotechnology and plasmonics, known for his 2012 Nature paper on chiral plasmonic nanostructures.

Ulrich Keyser

Ulrich F. Keyser is a physicist and Professor of Applied Physics at the University of Cambridge, known for combining DNA nanotechnology with solid-state nanopore sensing for disease detection.

William Shih

William M. Shih is a DNA nanotechnology researcher at Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute, known for a clonable DNA octahedron and 3D DNA origami.

Yamuna Krishnan

Yamuna Krishnan is an Indian-born chemical biologist and DNA nanotechnologist, Louis Block Professor at the University of Chicago, known for DNA nanomachines that image living cells.