As chipmakers are struggling to develop smaller and cheaper chips, IBM is looking to building next-generation microchips with DNA, the building blocks of our bodies.

Artificial DNA nanostructures, or “DNA origami” may provide a cheap framework on which to build tiny microchips, according to a paper published on Sunday in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

“This is the first demonstration of using biological molecules to help with processing in the semiconductor industry,” IBM research manager Spike Narayan said in an interview with Reuters.

“Basically, this is telling us that biological structures like DNA actually offer some very reproducible, repetitive kinds of patterns that we can actually leverage in semiconductor processes,” he said.

For now, the tinier the chip, the more expensive the equipment. Narayan said that if the DNA origami process scales to production-level, the production cost for manufacturers would shrink from hundreds of millions of dollars to less than a million dollars.

The scientists at IBM’s Almaden Research Center and the California Institue of Technology are doing research about this. However, according to Narayan, the new processes are at least 10 years out, as the technique needs years of experimentation and testing.