Programmable DNA-Origami Molecular Scaffolds for Holographic Single-Particle Diffractive Imaging

DNA nanotechnology provides the platform to create reproducible biomolecular nanostructures of any desired shape. Hence, it becomes our choice of sample trove for the proof-of-principle XFEL-SPI experiments and method development. Symmetric objects such as viruses are regularly used as targets in XFEL-SPI experiments. We aim to image DNA-origami objects. Since the 2007 experiments at FLASH-DESY, there have been attempts to observe diffraction from intact DNA-origami (Bogan and Chapman et al. Nano Lett, 2008). Recently, for the first time, we have successfully observed XFEL diffraction from electrospray-aerosolized intact 3D DNA-origami particles at the EuXFEL, which opens up several new possibilities, including, but not limited to, molecular scaffolds. In this poster, we present simulations on how DNA-origami scaffolds can be useful as platforms for holographic imaging.