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New energy efficient, direction-controllable mechanism for molecular transport developed

New energy efficient, direction-controllable mechanism for molecular transport developed

-Toward improvement of photoelectric conversion efficiency-

Summary

A research group led by Research Assistant Aurélien Sikora, Assistant Professor Javier Ramón-Azcón, and Junior Chief Researcher Winfried Teizer of the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR) at Tohoku University in cooperation with Associate Professor Mituso Umetsu's group at the Tohoku University School of Engineering has succeeded in a directed transport of biomolecules (microtubules) by placing kinesin, a molecular motor protein, on carbon nanotubes (CNT) arranged as a track. Various transport methods of biomolecules using liquid flow and electric fields have been proposed in the past. However, this proposed methodology utilizing the chemical energy of kinesin does not require motors or an external power source and promises a smaller system compared to conventional devices. The results of this research are expected to contribute to smaller apparatuses for protein analysis in pharmaceuticals. The above research results have been published online in Nano Letters on January 8, 2014. The paper's title is "Molecular Motor-Powered Shuttles along Multi-walled Carbon Nanotube Tracks."

Article Information

Aurélien Sikora, Javier Ramón-Azcón, Kyongwan Kim, Kelley Reaves, Hikaru Nakazawa, Mitsuo Umetsu, Izumi Kumagai, Tadafumi Adschiri, Hitoshi Shiku, Tomokazu Matsue, Wonmuk Hwang, Winfried Teizer, "Molecular Motor-Powered Shuttles along Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Tracks." Nano Letters (2014) abstract

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