Researcher: Kerstin Göpfrich

Department: Cavendish Laboratory

Film makers: Axel Bangert, Lizzy Hobbs

How do you fold DNA into the shape of a crocodile? An encounter between an artist and a scientist leads us into a compelling journey through the macroscopic world of paper origami and the microscopic world of folding DNA. Physicists developed DNA origami in 2006 where it is used to create new shapes and structures from short pieces of DNA. While various artistic nano-scale shapes have been created as a proof of principle, DNA origami is now used to build technologies on the smallest scale. This research looks at ways DNA origami can be applied to biomedicine and used in smart drug delivery systems which target certain cell types.