Site under remake!

Some features on the site might look odd. I'm working on moving these pages to a new home. (Jan 12, 2010)

DNA origami - Now available for double stranded!

Im proud to present double-stranded DNA origami! It turns out that by designing two origami structures for each of the two complementary strands of a double-helix, you can actually pry those strands apart and fold them into two structures, in one testtube! (How cool is that?) No longer is DNA origami restricted to use M13 viral DNA. The data and method is presented in our latest paper, available here.

Our 3D DNA origami paper is out!

In the issue of Nature from May 21 our group shows the true strength of DNA origami. Please visit my popular science pages for a closer look. A copy of the paper can be downloaded from here.

Animation showing the scaffold design of one of the structures in the nature paper.

About Bjorn Hogberg, PhD

In the spring of 2007 i was awarded a Swedish Science Council fellowship and currently I'm working at the Harvard Medical School as a post-doc in the lab of prof. William Shih. My other collaborators are Shawn Douglas, Dr. Hendrik Dietz and Dr. Tim Liedl. 

Earlier bio

I graduated from Uppsala University in 2000 with a MSc in Engineering Physics (Civilingenjör - Teknisk Fysik) having spent one of my undergraduate years at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. Moved to Gothenburg in 2000 and started as a PhD student at Chalmers University of Technology in the group of Tord Claeson and Zdravko Ivanov. Took a Licenciate degree (tekn. Lic.) in 2002. After a year on the run with my family in Sundsvall I (re)started my PhD studies at Mid Sweden University with Håkan Olin as my new supervisor in 2004 and graduated in Jan 2007. This way I have moved from the fascinating field of superconductivity to the even more fascinating field of programmable self-assembly. The "nano" point-of-view is common to both fields and maybe some day I will be able to mix them (self-assembling a superconducting circuit!). At this point, I am more interested in designing molecular machines to be used as tools for biotechnology. If you want more details, feel free to download my CV. A publication list is available on my 'Publications' page.

Current research

 Currently I am building 2D and 3D structures and machines out of DNA. In our lab we are using DNA-origami to try to build complex three dimensional structures that can act as new tools for biotechnology. 

In the even longer run I believe these things will also become important for creating nano-electronics.

Lately we published a paper in Nature, describing this technique in detail. My publications page has the file and the popular science links contain an overview of the system.

I'm also developing a method to use double stranded DNA as a scaffold for DNA origami. More on this as I get it published...

Previous projects

Some of the other things I have been working on...

Theoretical aspects of Self-Assembly

What are the limits of programmable and algorithmic self-assembly? Can all complex things be built using self-assembly? By looking at the properties of the building blocks we try to calculate how complex the self-assembled structures can be.

Programmable Self-Assembly using gold nanoparticles

How do one do to control the fabrication of things so tiny that photolithographic methods are no longer an option? You mix gold and DNA! Using tiny particles of gold (~10 nm in diameter) and coating them with strands of DNA we can make the particles stick together in patterns that we prefer with the DNA acting as a selective glue.  I have also focused on the patterning of DNA-origami with gold nano-particles.

Superconducting Josephson junctions for high temperature superconductor digital circuits

Using pulsed laser deposition I grew thins films of YBCO, a superconductor that turns superconducting at 92K. Using e-beam and photolithography we tried to turn those films into devices such as SQUID magnetometers and RSFQ digital circuits.