# DNA origami nanorobots

Source: https://onco.cc/technologies/dna-origami-nanorobots/  
OnCo record `dna-origami-nanorobots` (Technology). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

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.

## Fields

- Kind: Technology
- Status: preclinical
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Tags: frontier; radical
- 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

## Sources

- ClinicalTrials.gov: DNA nanostructure cancer: https://clinicaltrials.gov/search?term=DNA%20nanostructure%20cancer

## Connected records

- fronts: [Drug Discovery Platforms](https://onco.cc/fronts/drug-discovery/), [Targeted Therapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/targeted-therapy/)
- technologies: [Masked / conditionally active ADC](https://onco.cc/technologies/masked-adc/), [Oligonucleotide therapeutics](https://onco.cc/technologies/antisense-sirna/)
- roadmaps: [Devices and physical therapies roadmap: heat and light → electric fields and focused sound → drug-releasing implants](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/devices-roadmap/), [Radical oncology: what could change the war by 2035](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/frontier-2035/)

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