How the Nano Device Was Cloaked

The scientists at the  Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard were looking for a way to place smart DNA nanorobots in the blood stream. So far the body’s immune system would find and erase these DNA nanorobots. In an inspiration from nature the scientists decided to use a virus cloaking strategy for these nanorobots.

They decided to mimic a type of virus that protects its genome by enclosing it in a solid protein case, then layering on an oily coating identical to that in membranes that surround living cells. This contains a bilayer of phospholipid that helps the viruses evade the immune system and delivers them to the cell interior.

So the scientists first folded DNA into a virus-sized octahedron. Using DNA nanotechnology they built in handles to hang lipids, which in turn directed the assembly of a single bilayer membrane surrounding the octahedron. To see if they would survive inside the body they were injected with fluorescent dye and injected into mice.

In the past only the bladder of the mice would glow as they were broken down and processed to send out of the body. however the coated DNA nanorobots were successful. The whole body of the mouse glowed for hours after receiving this coated DNA nanorobot showing that they remained in the blood stream. What an interesting science project.