The Canary and Sha lab develops strategies that use DNA as a programmable chemical scaffold for precision organic synthesis. Leveraging DNA nanoarchitectures as massively parallel reaction platforms, we enable localized catalytic control over diverse, orthogonal reactions. By integrating catalytic precision with spatially encoded DNA scaffolds and metal-mediated electronic programmability, our research explored specialized components designed to construct systems in which multiple reagents can coexist within localized DNA reaction environments while selective reactions are activated on demand through chemical and physical control.
We also design and optimize on-DNA coupling reactions that covalently integrate organic molecules and polymers within and between DNA strands, with reaction outcomes tunes through sequence design, spatial control, and solid-phase synthesis conditions. These approaches make it possible to build electronically chimeric and functional materials – such as DNA-graphene conjugates, with molecular-level precision.
Through this work, we establish DNA as both a structural template and a synthetic tool for creating programmable nanomaterials, bridging organic chemistry, nanotechnology, chemical biology, and molecular electronics.
