Gust. Komppa Award 2024 to Aalto University

In Sofia Julin‘s Doctoral thesis “DNA Origami as a Tool for Assembling Functional Biohybrid Nanomaterials”, the goal was to build functional biohybrid materials with high structural order. The “DNA origami” technique enables tailor-made, well-defined and highly reproducible DNA-based structures, and could therefore help develop more advanced functional nanomaterials. In particular, the research investigated how DNA origami can be used to control higher-order self-organization by customizing the local electrical charges of structures, the size and shape of the building units. At the same time, information is obtained on the effect of different DNA origami configurations on the dynamic, electrical and structural properties of bionanomaterials, which are involved in the self-organization of structures, the selective dismantling of structures, or the possibilities of using external stimuli to reorganize structures. 

The dissertation consisted of 4 articles published in international publication series and a high-quality summary. Various chemical structural analysis methods were widely applied in the doctoral research. As a whole, the dissertation research demonstrates excellent scientific competence and a fluent written description of the goals, results and impact of the research.

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