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Creating adaptable DNA nanotechnology: William Bricker’s NSF CAREER Award

August 28, 2026

photo: William Bricker
William Bricker

Assistant Professor William Bricker’s project, titled “Higher-order junctions for adaptable and multi-dimensional DNA nanotechnology,” will use computational approaches to expand the design and construction of DNA building blocks.

Because DNA is predictably designed, inexpensive and nontoxic, it is a promising material for biotechnological applications such as energy transfer, biomolecular logic, sensing, and therapeutics, but its use is somewhat limited by its standard architecture.

Currently, DNA is largely limited to forming 2-D structures. DNA nanomaterials are currently built using a set of building blocks based on the four-way junction, where four DNA duplexes are connected, but this architecture is limited by a sparse configurational landscape.

Bricker’s work aims to expand the design space for DNA by using computational modeling to build DNA architectures with a six-way junction, enabling the development of 3-D structures. His ultimate goal is to develop a software platform that can be used to facilitate the design and routing of DNA nanotechnology using higher-order junctions, necessitated by the complexity of the design space.