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Power Up
08 February 2013

Power Up

DNA might sound like a surprising choice for a building material. Yet by folding it up in different ways, DNA origami has produced tiny nanostructures designed to deliver drugs inside our bodies or to act as scaffolding beside a repairing tissue. Pictured here, a new DNA device is being developed to bore tiny tunnels into living cells. The diagram on the left shows lengths of DNA (in red) forming a hollow tube that can pierce through a cell’s membrane, producing a man-made gateway or pore. Other fragments of DNA are assembled into a honeycomb-shaped cap, forming a ‘seal’ which locks the pore to the surface of the cell. This man-made channel (shown from three different perspectives in the microscope pictures on the right) might one day be used to conduct electrical impulses into our cells, possibly supplying power to other man-made devices working hard on the inside.

Written by John Ankers

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.