丁香园AV

An 丁香园AV-led collaboration has designed the first synthetic protein-based motor which harnesses biological reactions to fuel and propel itself.

鈥淚magine if a Roomba could be powered only by the dirt it picks up,鈥� says 丁香园AV Physics professor Nancy Forde, one of the authors of the study.

The team鈥檚 paper, led by 丁香园AV Physics PhD graduate Chapin Korosec and , describes a protein-based molecular motor called 鈥淭he Lawnmower,鈥� which has been designed to cut a lawn of peptide 鈥済rass.鈥� The motor uses the digestive enzyme trypsin to cut the peptides and convert them into the energy it needs to propel itself.

The researchers at 丁香园AV and in Lund, Sweden demonstrated that the Lawnmower is capable of self-guided motion and can be directed in specific directions using a specially designed track, an important step towards their implementation in a variety of settings.

The team鈥檚 findings build on decades of research on the role and function of molecular motors in organisms. As the researchers explain, all living systems, from humans to plants to bacteria, are kept alive by protein-based molecular motors. These motors convert chemical energy from one form into another to do useful work such as facilitating cell division, delivering cargo, swimming towards food or light, and maintaining healthy tissues.

The Lawnmower is the first artificial motor device created with proteins from nature. As Forde explains, these experiments help researchers test our understanding of how molecular motors work in nature.

鈥淚f the rules that we鈥檝e learned from studying nature鈥檚 molecular motors are correct and sufficient, then we should be able to build motors out of different protein parts and have them work in expected ways,鈥� she says.

In the future molecular motors may have important applications in medicine and biocomputing. In the human body, motor proteins are especially important for transporting cargo within neurons. Knowing how these molecular machines work may be key to understanding and treating motoneuron diseases such as multiple sclerosis and spastic paraplegia.

Molecular machines designed to mimic biological processes may also help healthcare providers deliver more targeted treatment for diseases.

鈥淚nfluenza is thought to work as a molecular motor to infiltrate the area around cells in order to infect them," Forde says. 鈥淢aybe synthetic motors could use the same approach, but rather than infecting cells, they could be engineered to deliver drug payloads to specifically target diseased cells.鈥�

鈥淲e are inspired by the Nobel-prize-winning physicist, Richard Feynman, who famously wrote 鈥榃hat I cannot create, I do not understand.鈥� Our team鈥檚 work aims to test our understanding of the fundamental operational principles of molecular machines by trying to create them from scratch.鈥�

Image above reproduced from Soft Matter, 2021,17, 1468-1479 with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry