Nanomachines Made of DNA Engineered to Kill Cancer

joshbyard:

Douglas’s nanomachine looks like a clamshell, its halves clasped together by two sets of entwined double-stranded DNA and its interior filled with antibodies or drug molecules. When the DNA binds to proteins on target cells, such as cancer, the two double strands unzip and the clamshell swings open to unleash its cargo. Such targeted drug treatment would require lower doses of disease-killing chemicals—and thus produce fewer unpleasant side effects.