Researchers have, for a while now, been able to create tiny nanoscale structures, using all kinds of molecular building blocks.
One technique which is rapidly taking off is using DNA as the construction material. It can potentially lead to self-assembling or even replicating structures, highly sought-after characteristics in the world of nanotech.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers has used DNA to construct tiny boxes big enough to hold a ribosome, an integral part of the DNA replicating machinery. Additionally, these boxes can be sealed with one sequence of DNA acting as a lock, and opened again with another gene sequence acting as a key.
An obvious potential use for this is in the field of pharmaceuticals, as boxes could be programmed to release a dose of a drug when in the presence of a particular gene sequence.
From Nature
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