NATuG

A program designed to streamline the nucleic acid nanotube design process.

Creating nanoscale tubular structures is an inherently tricky task, made possible by taking advantage of DNA’s unique structure. The strategic placement of Watson-Crick DNA base pairings in synthetic DNA allows for the creation of extremely precise nanotubes, with applications ranging from improved drug delivery to tissue wound repair. The design process requires both close attention to DNA’s complex geometry, precise alignment of strands, and careful base selection computations. NATuG, is a Python-based desktop application that aims to make the nucleic-acid design process simpler, easier, and even fun. NATuG provides an intuitive interface, allowing one to customize and visualize the nanotube shape, weave together helices in a matter of clicks, and apply/export sequences.

A user manual for the program is located here.

Website Blog

A blog about this project can be found here.

Quickstart Instructions

It is advised that you create a virtual environment for installing library requirements (step 4). Then, install all the requirements in the requirements.txt file, and boot the program by running launcher.py. Setting DEBUG to True in the launcher script will delete previous save states, but is will also provide enhanced logging.

Poster on NATuG

NATuG_poster.pdf

Program screenshots

Credits

Icons from https://ionic.io/ionicons
Color Picker Widget from https://github.com/nlfmt/pyqt-colorpicker