It’s hard enough to get a synthetic DNA motor to run in a living cell—and not just in a test tube—but it’s even harder to get the DNA motor to start only when it might be needed. Yet DNA motors built by scientists at the University of Alberta have been running smoothly inside cancer cells. Also, each of these molecular engines didn’t turn over until its specially designed ignition mechanism received the right key, in this case a cancer-associated microRNA (miRNA).
This result—a demonstration that a synthetic molecular engine may be started by a specific intracellular target—could encourage scientists to develop diverse diagnostic and drug-delivery applications.