Kurt Gothelf’s research is founded upon organic chemistry and branches out into DNA nanotechnology, bioconjugation, nucleic acid chemistry, and biosensors. 

From 2007 to 2017, the group led the Danish National Research Foundation Center for DNA Nanotechnology, where it explored artificial DNA nanostructures, with a particular emphasis on their integration with synthetic organic chemistry.

Currently, Kurt Gothelf directs the Center for Multifunctional Biomolecular Drug Design (CEMBID), funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Challenge program. The center focuses on the development of new multifunctional drugs including proteins, peptides, and small molecules through oligonucleotide-based assembly. In connection to this, the group places  a strong focus on advancing new methods for protein-DNA conjugation.

Since 2023, the group has been part of the Center for RNA Therapeutics Towards Metabolic Disease (RNA-META), an initiative dedicated to develop RNA-based medicines and innovative delivery methods for targeted disease treatment. The group is also collaborating with the Technical University of Denmark and Harvard University on the BioNwire project, which aims to enable the self-assembly of a bio-nanowire device on a microelectronic chip for single-molecule biosensing and conductance analysis.