{"entity":{"id":"dna-origami-nanorobots","kind":"technology","name":"DNA origami nanorobots","aka":[],"tldr":"Folded DNA machines that open only when they touch a tumour, releasing a payload or clotting the tumour's blood supply.","summary":"DNA strands can be folded into nanoscale containers whose lids are aptamer locks that open on binding a tumour marker such as nucleolin. The best-known demonstration delivered thrombin into tumour vasculature in mice, causing intravascular thrombosis and tumour necrosis; a 2024 Karolinska design displayed death-receptor ligands only at tumour pH. Nothing in this class has entered human trials, and nuclease stability and manufacturing scale remain open questions.","status":"preclinical","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"ClinicalTrials.gov: DNA nanostructure cancer","url":"https://clinicaltrials.gov/search?term=DNA%20nanostructure%20cancer"}],"tags":["frontier","radical"],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["drug-discovery","targeted-therapy"],"technologies":["antisense-sirna","masked-adc"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"principle":"Scaffolded DNA origami forms a hollow structure held shut by aptamer locks; binding the trigger opens the structure and exposes the payload only where the trigger is present.","strengths":["Logic-gated release confines activity to the tumour","Nanometre control of payload spacing","Materials are non-immunogenic in principle"],"limitations":["Preclinical only","Nuclease degradation and rapid clearance","Thrombosis-based designs carry obvious systemic risk","Manufacturing cost at clinical scale"]},"route":"/technologies/dna-origami-nanorobots/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"drug-discovery","kind":"section","name":"Drug Discovery Platforms","route":"/fronts/drug-discovery/"},{"id":"targeted-therapy","kind":"section","name":"Targeted Therapy","route":"/fronts/targeted-therapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"masked-adc","kind":"technology","name":"Masked / conditionally active ADC","route":"/technologies/masked-adc/"},{"id":"antisense-sirna","kind":"technology","name":"Oligonucleotide therapeutics","route":"/technologies/antisense-sirna/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"devices-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Devices and physical therapies roadmap: heat and light → electric fields and focused sound → drug-releasing implants","route":"/roadmaps/devices-roadmap/"},{"id":"frontier-2035","kind":"roadmap","name":"Radical oncology: what could change the war by 2035","route":"/roadmaps/frontier-2035/"}]}}