Brent Fielden | Engineering autonomous, chemically fueled DNA origami motors
Foresight Institute Molecular Machines Group
Engineering autonomous, chemically fueled DNA origami motors
Abstract: Biomolecular motors convert chemical energy into mechanical work and motion. Although significant progress in synthetic biology and biomolecular engineering has been made, constructing autonomous, unidirectional, chemically-fueled biomolecular motors remains a significant challenge.
Here we have conceptualized two synthetic rotational motors built from DNA origami, each powered by a distinct Brownian ratchet mechanism. The first uses the enzyme adenylate kinase to drive conformational changes in a DNA origami rotor, modulating its internal potential energy landscape to produce unidirectional motion. The second, a replenishing burnt-bridge ratchet inspired by the motility of influenza viruses on cell surfaces, uses a DNA origami rotor that forms transient tethers to substrate on the inner wall of a DNA origami stator; enzymatic cleavage of these tethers creates a directional bias toward unvisited substrate, producing continuous rotation.
Together, these designs provide a foundation for future synthetic nanomachinery, expanding the possibilities for autonomous nanoscale motion and controlled energy transduction.
Speaker Bio: Brent is a PhD candidate in biophysics investigating how to engineer dynamic molecular systems using DNA origami and proteins. He spent his master's thesis characterizing "superpower" behavior in the natural motor protein Kinesin-8. This inspired him to pursue synthetic biomolecular motor design in Hendrik Dietz's lab for Biomolecular Nanotechnology at the Technical University of Munich. brent-fielden-19bb5b55
Foresight Institute Molecular Machines Group
A group of scientists, entrepreneurs, and institutional allies who cooperate to advance molecular machines, applications in energy, medicine, and material science, and long-term progress toward Richard Feynman’s vision of nanotechnology.
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