NanoGripper sounds like a late-night TV infomercial product that helps you pick up small objects like loose pills and dropped Cheetos, but I assure you it's actually much cooler (and a little more complicated) than that.
Scientists at the University of Illinois's Urbana-Champaign developed the NanoGripper, which is essentially a little teeny-tiny hand made of a folded strand of DNA. It has four fingers it can use to grab virus particles, like COVID-19's, for instance, by targeting its spike proteins, preventing the virus from infecting healthy cells.
Before I go any further, you need to know there is such a concept as DNA Origami. Here's a whole Wikipedia page that will give you way more detail than I'm about to provide, but the short and sweet version of it is that DNA origami involves bending and twisting strands of DNA into two and three-dimensional shapes like they were balloon animals and the scientists were the birthday party clowns.
The process has a ton of practical applications in the medical world but is also considered something of an art, having once been used to create the Mona Lisa on a nanoscale. What better way to demonstrate both halves of this wondrous innovation than by building a tiny crude hand made of DNA and using it to pluck viruses out of a human body like the Master Hand from Super Smash Bros.
The NanoGripper's fingers are programmed to recognize viral markers. When it finds them, it wraps its little fingies around the virus, gripping it ever so gently but firmly and blocking it from infecting other cells. The researchers suspect this could be used as an antiviral nasal spray that prevents viral particles from binding to cells in your nose, effectively turning your nostrils into surreal, nightmarish walls of hands clawing at intruders.
Another cool little feature is that it can detect viruses within 30 minutes, which is about on par with qPCR molecular tests hospitals use to detect COVID-19. Let's hope as the scientists who created this insane tiny hand that the NanoGripper can be used to fend off other viruses like HIV and influenza and someday even provide cancer treatment.