DEVELOPMENT OF A BROWNIAN RATCHET INSPIRED DNA NANOMOTOR

Abstract

DNA nanomotors are inspired from naturally occurring motor proteins and they aim to do work despite the stochastic environment that they exist in, generating movements and change in a system which without them would be thermodynamically impossible. Successful nanomotors would enable an unprecedented amount of freedom in the ways we can affect the environment at a nanoscale. We envision our track to be a periodic assortment of binding sites arranged in a way which creates an asymmetric free energy landscape resulting in directional bias. Through photo-switching, the free energy landscape switches with the new free energy minimum shifting like in a double flashing ratchet. Due to its simple single-stranded design, it should be easier to use and troubleshoot in complicated systems with numerous moving parts such as in a multi-motor complex. The new motor would be particularly suitable for integration into larger DNA origami structure, such as artificial muscles.