Artificial molecular machines in membranes: transmembrane relays for ion transport, catalysis and cargo pumping

This program will develop artificial molecular machines confined within lipid bilayer membranes, to control transmembrane transport and catalysis in cellular systems. Molecular machines are ubiquitous in nature.

At the heart of many biological processes are protein machines confined within biological membranes, which drive non-equilibrium transmembrane ion pumping via the consumption of chemical fuels.

Biology has evolved to utilise the controlled nanomechanical motion of molecular machines to mediate numerous complex tasks in the cellular environment a clear indication of the immense technological potential of synthetic systems that work in a comparable way.

Despite this fundamental importance, synthetic molecular machines able to facilitate out-of-equilibrium pumping of ions have not been developed.

To address this key challenge, this project seeks to develop synthetic analogues of biologys membrane pumps: artificial molecular machinery that can interface and be manipulated within lipid bilayer membranes.Its objectives are to develop:molecular machine ion transport relays, able to pass ions and catalysts across lipid membranesstimuli-responsive mechanically-interlocked ion and molecular transport shuttles molecular machine transmembrane pumps, capable of non-equilibrium active transportBesides crucial impact to the rapidly expanding, but to date surprisingly distinct fields of molecular machines and membrane supramolecular chemistry, the results from this project will enhance our understanding of non-equilibrium processes within and across lipid bilayer membranes.

We anticipate that the systems developed over the course of the grant will provide the basis for the longer-term development of novel tools for applications in chemical and synthetic biology, such as to regulate the flow of material in and out of artificial cells, and in systems chemistry applications which enable the non-equilibrium manipulation of matter at the nanoscale.