The sexually transmitted disease, gonorrhoea, presents an ever-growing threat to global health. In addition to rising infection rates, the causative bacterium, Neisseria gonorrhoeae (N. gonorrhoeae) has shown an extraordinary ability to develop antimicrobial resistance. With increasing numbers of so-called "super resistant" cases, combined with a lack of new drugs in the clinical pipeline, there are growing concerns that gonorrhoea will soon become totally untreatable. Accordingly, N. gonorrhoeae was recently classified as a "Priority 2" pathogen by the World Health Organization. One of the main factors contributing to the rapid development of resistance in N. gonorrhoeae, is its extraordinary ability to acquire and incorporate DNA from members of the same, or closely related species, via natural transformation. N. gonorrhoeae exhibits a unique ability to preferentially uptake intraspecies DNA via recognition of a 12 base pair DNA uptake sequence (DUS) motif, found only in Neisseriaceae. In this project, the DUS was exploited for the development of novel diagnostics and therapeutics, suitable for the treatment of gonorrhoea. In the first instance, gold nanoparticles functionalised with DUS-containing oligonucleotides were used to detect DUS motifs within gonococcal genomic DNA. By exploiting the unique surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles, a rapid, colorimetric diagnostic tool was developed, suitable for point-of-care gonorrhoea diagnosis. Later, to tackle the diminishing treatments options available for gonorrhoea, the DNA uptake sequence was investigated as a gonococcal-specific delivery vector for novel therapeutics. DUScontaining oligonucleotides were conjugated to gold nanoparticles, an antibiotic and oligonucleotides with antibacterial potential, and their therapeutic response against N. gonorrhoeae investigated. Extending the DUS-functionalisation of nanoparticles further, magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles decorated with DUS motifs were prepared and preliminary investigations into their potential diagnostic application were performed.