Specially designed proteins make up the first components of a molecular engine, acting as self-assembling axles and rotors that could one day power nanomachines
bacteria, and then checked their structure using a method called cryogenic electron microscopy.inside the rotors, and also revealed the different configurations that would be expected if the axles were turning. But because cryogenic electron microscopy can only provide a series of stills rather than a moving picture, the team can’t say for sure if the axles are rotating.
If they are, it would only be a random back-and-forth movement driven by molecules knocking into each other, a phenomenon called . The team is now designing more components to drive the motion in one direction and create a rotary engine, says Baker.at the University of Maryland. “As far as I am aware, it’s the first time anyone has come close to designing a protein machine.”before, says Moult, but not such complex assemblages.
“I am very impressed with the structural detail with which the Baker group has built this protein rotary assembly,” says at the Technical University of Munich in Germany. “I will be waiting eagerly to see how the group will implement an energy input to the system to drive the motion in one direction.”, and two other groups have also created moving machines made of DNA, he says. “I will say, though, that the de novo protein design field is catching up rapidly and might overtake the DNA field soon.
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