DNA nanotechnology has generated a wealth of structures uniquely suited for nanoscale patterning; however, scalability, affordability, and recyclability are important preconditions for the industrial production and widespread use of DNA-based materials. In this perspective, we propose that “printing” programmed particles from transient DNA templates provides a practical pathway toward overcoming these hurdles. Just as a printing press transfers ink to paper in a cyclical process, DNA can translocate materials from one substrate to another while preserving spatial information. DNA printing decorates a particle with arbitrarily designed patterns that break its symmetry, enabling its autonomous assembly into complex structures. Printing thus organizes anisotropic particles with high throughput: a single DNA scaffold engenders template recyclability and hybrid material scale-up. By applying DNA-based printing methods to increasingly diverse materials, we will export DNA nanotechnology to other research areas and generate multivalent, asymmetric structures for scalable, nanoscale control of structure and function.

DNA纳米技术已经产生了许多独特的结构，特别适合于纳米级图案化。但是，可伸缩性，可负担性和可回收性是工业生产和基于DNA的材料的广泛使用的重要前提。从这个角度来看，我们建议从瞬态DNA模板“打印”程序化的粒子提供克服这些障碍的实用途径。就像印刷机在循环过程中将墨水转移到纸张上一样，DNA可以将材料从一种基材转移到另一种基材上，同时保留空间信息。DNA印刷用任意设计的图案装饰颗粒，打破了其对称性，使其能够自动组装成复杂的结构。因此，打印可以以高吞吐量组织各向异性粒子：单个DNA支架可提高模板的可回收性和混合材料的规模。通过将基于DNA的印刷方法应用于越来越多样化的材料，我们将把DNA纳米技术出口到其他研究领域，并生成多价，不对称结构，以实现可扩展的纳米级结构和功能控制。