Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health concern in the 21st century. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics has led to the rise of certain bacterial strains for which common antibiotics are not effective, and lead to infections which are increasingly hard to treat. Alternative antimicrobial strategies are therefore urgently needed.

In this project led by Dr. Ioanna Mela from the Laser Analytics Group, we used DNA origami nanostructures as vehicles for delivering the antibacterial enzyme lysozyme efficiently to two different types of bacteria (Bacillus Subtilis and Escherichia Coli). We showed that lysozyme delivery with our DNA nanostructures proved more efficient in hindering bacterial growth than just using lysozyme.

Read more about this exciting project in our publication. This work was also recently featured on the New Scientist magazine.

e-coli E-coli (red) covered in DNA origami nanostructures (green), as visualised with a structured illumination microscope. This image is courtesy of Dr. Ioanna Mela.