Chenxiang Lin

Assistant Professor of Cell Biology

Research Interests

Engineering DNA-nanostructure-based molecular tools for biological study

Research Summary

Nature has evolved sophisticated and highly efficient molecular machineries for all forms of lives. Our lab focuses on engineering DNA-nanostructure-based molecular tools for investigating and engineering the naturally occurring molecular events. Those DNA-based tools have made it possible for us to manipulate macromolecules and higher order assemblies with nanometer precision. We expect such research to help elucidate biological questions at the single-molecule level, and in the long run lead to functional synthetic nano-machines that rival natural systems in complexity.

Research themes in our lab include:

  1. Structural DNA Nanotechnology: rational design of self-assembled DNA nanostructure with ever-increasing complexity and size.
  2. Single-Molecule Biophysics: study of biomolecule interactions through DNA-directed self-assembly and other single-molecule techniques.
  3. Biosensing and Imaging: developing nucleic-acid-based barcodes as multiplexed biosensors and/or in situ imaging probes.
  4. Synthetic Biology: rebuild naturally existing machineries (e.g., SNARE complex, nuclear pore, etc.) with artificial components and/or spatial arrangement.

Selected Publications

  • Lin, C., Perrault, S. D., Kwak, M., Graf, F., & Shih, W. M. (2013). Purification of DNA-origami nanostructures by rate-zonal centrifugation, Nucleic Acids Res, 41(2), e40.
  • Lin, C., Jungmann, R., Leifer, A. M., Li, C., Levner, D., Church, G. M., Shih, W. M., & Yin, P. (2012). Sub-micrometre geometrically encoded fluorescent barcodes self-assembled from DNA. Nature Chem, 4(10), 832–839.
  • Shih, W. M., & Lin, C. (2010). Knitting complex weaves with DNA origami. Curr Opin Struct Biol, 20(3), 276–282.
  • Lin, C., Rinker, S., Wang, X., Liu, Y., Seeman, N. C., & Yan, H. (2008). In vivo cloning of artificial DNA nanostructures. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 105(46), 17626–17631.
  • Lin, C., Wang, X., Liu, Y., Seeman, N. C., & Yan, H. (2007). Rolling circle enzymatic replication of a complex multi-crossover DNA nanostructure. J Am Chem Soc, 129(46), 14475–14481.
  • Lin, C., Liu, Y., & Yan, H. (2007). Self-assembled combinatorial encoding nanoarrays for multiplexed biosensing. Nano lett, 7(2), 507–512.
  • Lin, C., Katilius, E., Liu, Y., Zhang, J. & Yan, H. (2006). Self-assembled signaling aptamer DNA arrays for protein detection. Angew Chem Int Ed, 45(32), 5296–5301.

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