Credit: Daly and Newton/Image Bank/Getty

Ido Bachelet of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, and his colleagues used folded strands of DNA to create a suite of nanorobots that open, close and coordinate with each other in response to various interactions with certain proteins. When the robots were injected into a living cockroach (Blaberus discoidalis; pictured), different robot combinations created seven kinds of logic gate that each delivers a different outcome — such as releasing various antibody payloads — on the basis of specific protein cues.