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    Biomaterials Wednesday Sessions
       Session BI+NS-WeA

Paper BI+NS-WeA1
Light-controlled Molecular Shuttles Based on Motor Proteins

Wednesday, October 31, 2001, 2:00 pm, Room 103

Session: Nanobiology
Presenter: H. Hess, University of Washington
Authors: H. Hess, University of Washington
J. Clemmens, University of Washington
D. Qin, University of Washington
J. Dennis, University of Washington
J. Howard, University of Washington
V. Vogel, University of Washington
Correspondent: Click to Email
Molecular shuttles, an active transport system to position nanoscale objects, are needed as parts of molecular assembly stations, self-healing materials, or nanoscale actuators. The key problems of such a transport system are finding the motors, guiding the motion, loading cargo, and controlling the speed on the nanoscale. Active transport by single molecules is ubiquitous in biology and the solutions found by nature can serve as inspiration for technology. We demonstrate that molecular shuttles resembling conveyor belts can be constructed utilizing kinesin motor proteins as engines, microtubules as belts, and ATP as fuel. Two different strategies for guiding the microtubules have been explored by us: Arranging the motor proteins in nanometer-wide tracks by selective adsorption or creating micrometer-wide guiding channels by soft-lithography. Selective loading of cargo is accomplished by tagging cargo with streptavidin, and linking it to biotinylated microtubules. User-controlled exposure of caged ATP to UV-light and addition of an ATP-consuming enzyme to the buffer solution can move the microtubules in discrete steps. This forms a tool-set for the assembly of a functional molecular shuttle.