DNA Brings Materials to Life: DNA-Coated Colloids Help Create Novel Self-Assembling Materials

A colloid is a substance spread out evenly inside another substance. Everyday examples include milk, styrofoam, hair sprays, paints, shaving foam, gels and even dust, mud and fog. One of the most interesting properties of colloids is their ability to self-assemble -- to aggregate spontaneously into well-defined structures, driven by nothing but local interactions between the colloid's particles. Self-assembly has been of major interest in industry, since controlling it would open up a whole host of new technologies, such as smart drug-delivery patches or novel paints that change with light. In a recent Nature Communications publication, scientists from EPFL and the University of Cambridge have discovered a technique to control and direct the self-assembly of two different colloids.