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Cells use RNA, a single-stranded string of nucleic acids that translates blueprints encoded in DNA into the production of proteins.

The remarkably precise method allows researchers to peer into nanometer-sized membrane sacs, called extracellular vesicles or EVs, that can carry different types of cargos, like proteins, nucleic acids and metabolites, in the bloodstream.

The researchers had the broad idea of using a bioconjugation approach that would allow the proteins to be loaded into lipid nanoparticles, which form around nucleic acids.

"We think the way the system works is that if nucleic acids find these receptors, most likely they're going to be from a virus," Barton said.

"We suspect that in zombie cells, the nucleic acids contained in the ribosomes are being broken down and recycled to make new phage DNA."