Injectable protein nanofactories

Nature

 

484,

 

290

 

(19 April 2012)

 

doi:10.1038/484290c

Published online

 

18 April 2012

Daniel Anderson and his group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge created lipid spheres more than 100 nanometres in diameter that contained DNA and all the cellular ingredients and machinery needed to make proteins. By tagging the DNA with a chemical group that prevents it from being transcribed into RNA but can be removed using ultraviolet light, the researchers were able to control activation of RNA and protein production.