Control of Nanoparticle Assembly by Using DNA‐Modified Diatom Templates

Microorganisms point the way: The silica cell walls of various diatoms were covalently functionalized with DNA by using straightforward chemical procedures and then used as templates for the sequence-specific assembly and 3D hierarchical arrangement of prefabricated DNA-modified gold nanoparticles. The DNA was used to further direct the assembly of multiple nanoparticle layers onto the diatom templates (see picture).