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James @jdnicholas.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Check out our new review in ChemSystemsChem @chemistryeurope.bsky.social We explore how sustained supply, open conditions and reaction–diffusion control can enhance regulation of dissipative self-assembly and unlock emergent behaviors, from NESS to spatiotemporal oscillations doi.org/10.1002/syst...

doi.org

Beyond Batch Addition: Alternative Chemical Fueling Approaches for Enhanced Control of Dissipative Self‐Assembly

Artificial dissipative systems typically operate under batchwise fuel additions into closed reactors, leading to only transient nonequilibrium states. Alternative fueling approaches show how moving t...

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James @jdnicholas.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Our work demonstrating non-equilibrium states of a dissipative DNA-based system is now out in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social! 🎉 📄 The article is available to read open access here: doi.org/10.1002/anie... Thanks to all the collaborators for making this work possible!

Graphical abstract of the paper.

The top of the image shows a schematic representation of the dissipative DNA-based system, showing how addition of an RNA fuel strand causes the release of a fluorescently labelled DNA strand from a DNA/DNA duplex (with the other strand bearing a quencher moiety), to yield a free fluorescent output strand and a new DNA/RNA duplex. The enzyme RNaseH then acts on this heteroduplex, causing hydrolysis of the RNA strand, the formation of waste, and allowing the re-formation of the initial DNA/DNA duplex.

The bottom of the image shows a schematic graph of Output Released versus Time, with inset drawings of fuel pumps showing different amounts of fuel being dispensed. At the beginning no fuel is dispensed and so the graph remains flat, representing the thermodynamic equilibrium state. The graph shows increases in signal as fuel is supplied, reaching flat regions for each fuel supply rate, representing the different non-equilibrium steady states (NESS) which can be reached by varying the fuel supply rate. The graph shows an initial increase to a low level NESS, then a further increase to a higher NESS, followed by a decrease to an intermediate NESS, and then a final decrease back to the initial level.

Inset in the graph are two smaller graphs of delta energy versus system composition at the thermodynamic equilibrium and at a NESS, showing how at the equilibrium state the energy is lower, whilst at NESS the system composition is shifted to a relatively higher energy as fuel to waste conversion dissipates energy.

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James @jdnicholas.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Happy to be in Kyoto for the ISMSC2025 conference this week! If you’re interested in learning more about our work on “Sustained, reversible and adaptive non-equilibrium steady states of a dissipative DNA-based system” come to poster P2B_72 in Session 2 on Wednesday! #ismsc2025

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