New approaches to DNA-based manufacturing enable organization and assembly of molecular and nanoscale components to create micron-scale nanomaterials. This self-assembly process holds significant promise for biosensors, tailored nanoscale metamaterials, and synthetic biological machines. However, the largest structures formed to date remain yield-limited and restricted to flat or polyhedral. Research in this project explores the use of small-scale robotic systems to complement DNA self-assembly towards the creation of larger and more capable micron-scale and millimeter-scale nanostructured systems. A new class of pick and place robots is being developed that have the speed (> 10 cycles / sec), accuracy (< 1 µm), precision (< 1 µm) and end effectors needed to successfully assemble DNA-based microstructures that are 1-10 µm in scale for small-scale biomanufacturing.
