William Shih

Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

Summary
Description

The Shih lab designs principles for self-assembling molecular machines, primarily using structural DNA nanotechnology to build our model systems. We seek to apply our knowledge towards construction of artificial systems that help solve problems of biological and medical interest. Currently we focus on single-macromolecule identification and structure determination and on vaccine nanocarriers. For many applications, our present capabilities are too primitive. Thus we also investigate enabling technologies for increasing the complexity of programmable self-assembled systems.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Department of Cancer Biology Office: LC3313 360 Longwood Ave Boston, MA 02115

Tel: 617-632-5143
Email: william_shih@dfci.harvard.edu

Website:

http://shih.med.harvard.edu/
Lab Size: Between 10 and 15

Summary

We explore design principles for self-assembling molecular machines, primarily using structural DNA nanotechnology to build our model systems. We seek to apply our knowledge towards construction of artificial systems that help solve problems of biological and medical interest. Currently we focus on single-macromolecule identification and structure determination and on vaccine nanocarriers. For many applications, our present capabilities are too primitive. Thus we also investigate enabling technologies for increasing the complexity of programmable self-assembled systems.

Publications

Dionis Minev, Richard Guerra, Jocelyn Kishi, Cory Smith, Elisha Krieg, Khaled Said, Amanda Hornick, Hiroshi Sasaki, Gabriel Filsinger, Brian Beliveau, Peng Yin, George Church, William Shih. Rapid and scalable in vitro production of single-stranded DNA. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/558429v1 Zhao Z, Zhang M, Hogle JM, Shih WM, Wagner G, Nasr ML. DNA-Corralled Nanodiscs for the Structural and Functional Characterization of Membrane Proteins and Viral Entry. J Am Chem Soc. 140, 10639, 2018. Ponnuswamy N, Bastings MMC, Nathwani B, Ryu JH, Chou LYT, Vinther M, Li WA, Anastassacos FM, Mooney DJ, Shih WM. Oligolysine-based coating protects DNA nanostructures from low-salt denaturation and nuclease degradation. Nat Commun. 8, 15654, 2017. Johnson-Buck A, Shih WM. Single-Molecule Clocks Controlled by Serial Chemical Reactions. Nano Lett. 17, 7940, 2017. Douglas SM, Dietz H, Liedl T, Högberg B, Graf F, Shih WM. Self-assembly of DNA into nanoscale three-dimensional shapes. Nature 459, 414, 2009.