One step closer to nanoparticle factories to produce medicine within the human body

Could it be possible to one day deliver miniscule factories to the human body to produce medicine? In an article in the American Chemical Society’s journal Nano Letters, scientists described engineering micro- and nano-sized capsules that contain genetically coded instructions and production units for protein synthesis, which can be turned on with an external signal. These capsules could produce medicines that cannot be taken orally or are toxic and could harm other parts of the body. While similar systems have previously been developed using bacteria, artificial ones can be modified more easily. A nanoparticle system containing DNA and other components necessary to make proteins worked when injected into mice, producing proteins when a laser was shone onto the animals.