Self-assembled, programmable DNA nanodevices for biological and biomedical applications.

The broad field of Structural DNA Nanotechnology has diverged into various areas of applications ranging from computing, photonics, synthetic biology, biosensing to in-vivo bioimaging and therapeutic delivery to name a few. Though the field began to exploit DNA to build various nanoscale architectures, it has now taken a new path to diverge from structural DNA nanotechnology to functional or applied DNA nanotechnology. More recently a third sub-branch has emerged - biologically oriented DNA nanotechnology, which seeks to explore the functionalities of combinatorial DNA devices in various biological systems. In this review, we summarize the key developments in DNA nanotechnology revealing a current trend, which merges the functionality of DNA devices with the specificity of biomolecules to access a range of functions in biological systems. This review seeks to provide a perspective on evolution and biological applications of DNA nanotechnology, where integration of DNA structures with biomolecules can now uncover phenomena of interests to biologists and biomedical scientists. Finally, we conclude with the challenges, limitations, and perspectives of DNA nanodevices in fundamental and applied research.