Self-Assembling DNA Devices are Pretty Rad

How do we show how cool this is? I know, Destructoid with a guitar.

Researchers at Harvard and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have created self-assembling nanodevices out of DNA that can be programmed to change shape using tensegrity, whereby they balance tension and compression like the sculpture in the inset picture.

“This new self-assembly based nanofabrication technology could lead to nanoscale medical devices and drug delivery systems, such as virus mimics that introduce drugs directly into diseased cells,” said co-investigator and Wyss Institute director Don Ingber. A nanodevice that can spring open in response to a chemical or mechanical signal could ensure that drugs not only arrive at the intended target but are also released when and where desired. Further, nanoscopic tensegrity devices could one day reprogram human stem cells to regenerate injured organs. [Harvard via NextBigFuture]

Using DNA to deliver medication or to program stem cells would be brilliant because you can use a person’s own DNA to keep it compatible, and it’s a delivery vehicle that can be absorbed safely by the system.  And yet patients would get mad at me if I delivered their meds with a side of DNA.  People just don’t get the brilliance.

[Destructoid Guitar Hero by Harrison Krix.]