Researchers at Stanford University have successfully reapplied natural enzymes adapted from bacteria to flip specific sequences of DNA back and forth at will. This switch on/switch off ability means DNA can effectively be 'programmed' - something that could have breakthrough implications for the treatment of ageing and diseases such as cancers.

The research team call their device a 'recombinase addressable data' module (RAD). The RAD can modify specific sections of DNA with microbes that determine how the one-celled organisms will fluoresce under ultraviolet light.