Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40389428›Full record

ArticleNature communications2025

Automated design of scaffold-free DNA wireframe nanostructures.

Wen Wang, Abdulmelik Mohammed, Rong Chen, Antti Elonen, Silian Chen, Mengfan Tian, Junhao Yang, Ye Xiang, Pekka Orponen, Bryan Wei

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Programmable DNA Logic Systems for Applications in Biomedicine.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026
    Review
  2. Review
  3. Review
  4. DNA Origami and Its Applications in Synthetic Biology.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Review
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Wen Wang *School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3359-1030
Abdulmelik Mohammed *Department of Biomedical Engineering, San José State University, San José, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5931-5854
Rong ChenSchool of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
Antti ElonenDepartment of Computer Science, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1834-9422
Silian ChenBeijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology, Beijing Frontier Research Center for Biological Structure, Center for Infectious Disease Research, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6110-2076
Mengfan TianBGI Research, Beijing, 102601, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0003-5134-0259
Junhao YangSchool of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
Ye XiangBeijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology, Beijing Frontier Research Center for Biological Structure, Center for Infectious Disease Research, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. yxiang@tsinghua.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0230-9522
Pekka OrponenDepartment of Computer Science, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland. pekka.orponen@aalto.fi.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0417-2104
Bryan WeiSchool of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. bw@tsinghua.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2515-2409

Funding

Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology) 2021YFF1200200
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Computer-aided design has become common practice in DNA nanotechnology, and many programs are available that make the sophisticated design processes accessible to both the core research community and curious scientists in other fields. However, most of the design tools are committed to the scaffolded DNA origami method. Here we present an automated design pipeline for creating DNA wireframe nanostructures based on a scaffold-free molecular self-assembly approach. Unlike in the DNA origami method, scaffold-free designs are not built around a global backbone strand but are constituted entirely of short, locally intertwined oligonucleotides. This overcomes many limitations inherent in scaffolded nanostructure designs, most notably the size constraints imposed by the length of available scaffold strands, and the topological and algorithmic challenges of finding feasible scaffold-strand routings. In practice, this leads to simpler design flows and opens up new design possibilities. To demonstrate the flexibility and capability of our approach, we generate a variety of complex DNA wireframe designs automatically from 2D and 3D mesh models and successfully realise the respective molecular nanostructures experimentally.

Indexed as

Computer-Aided DesignDNANanostructuresNanotechnologyAlgorithmsNucleic Acid ConformationDNA

Identifiers

PMID40389428
PMCPMC12089508

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.