Biochemists have created a rotor and axis for a molecular engine from proteins

Biochemists from the University of Washington together with scientists from the University of Montpellier and the Center

Fred Hutchinson's cancer research developedtechnology for the production of proteins that form the rotor and axis necessary to create a molecular engine. The devices, each about a billion times smaller than a poppy seed, were designed on a computer, produced inside living cells and studied in the laboratory.

The researchers used the Rosetta program,to design ring-shaped proteins of a given diameter. Using the calculated data, the scientists tweaked the DNA of E. coli to add genes to create the necessary amino acids. As the researchers note, it is the sequence of amino acids that determines the shape that proteins will take when folded.

Biochemists have succeeded in folding some proteins intoaxis shape, and others - in the form of a rotor. After that, the researchers achieved the association of proteins, which together formed the rotor-axis combination necessary for a molecular engine.

Examination under an electron microscopeconfirmed that the proteins formed exactly the shapes that the scientists sought. But, since such images display only static states, it is not yet clear whether the components of the future engine are rotating, the developers say.

Biochemists will continue to work to create a molecular engine whose components make the rotor rotate in the desired direction.

One of our goals is to create nanomachines thatone day they will be able to circulate in the blood and independently remove unwanted plaques or even cancer cells. We know that very complex machines can be assembled from simple parts.

Alexis Courbet, Biochemist at the University of Washington Institute for Protein Design, Baker Lab Research Fellow, study co-author

Cover image: Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington

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