Molecular Software and Hardware for Programmed Chemical Synthesis
- Members: Andy M. Tyrrell, Cristina Costa Santini
- Funded by: EPSRC - EP/F008279/1.
- Start Date: October 2008
Molecular Software and Hardware for Programmed Chemical Synthesis
This is a very interdisciplinary project. We intend to design a nanoscale chemical factory in which the machines, like the products, are molecules. The factory will not only build molecules but will be capable of evolving them to have desirable properties. The products will be linear molecules produced by linking together smaller building blocks in a defined sequence - at each stage the molecular machinery will be capable of choosing the correct building block from a range of possibilities. The system will be capable of synthesizing a library of molecules with different sequences and selecting 'successful' molecules for their fitness to perform a specified task. We will also develop designs for more powerful systems in which the molecular machinery responsible for chemical synthesis has internal computing power and can direct its own operation.
The University of York is responsible for coordinating the development of the designs that will show computation, or control.
This part of the project is within the broad area of molecular machines. Specifically, DNA is the molecular substrate being harnessed. DNA is an interesting engineering material (DNA as an engineering material, Turberfield, Physics World, March 2003.), as it can be used to design systems capable of self-assembly, due to the complementarity of the base pairs.
DNA and its building blocks. (From Molecular Biology of the Cell, 4th Edition)
Interesting structures that can be controlled have already been shown, such as the molecular tweezer (A DNA-fuelled molecular machine made of DNA, Yurke et al, NATURE, VOL 406, AUGUST 2000.), that closes in the presence of the ‘closing strand’ and opens in the presence of the ‘opening strand’, as shown in the figure.
Construction and operation of the molecular tweezers. Molecular tweezer structure formed by hybridisation of oligonucleotide strands A,B and C.
By harnessing these characteristics in innovative designs, we aim at a DNA based system that will, for example, perform as a Finite State Machine.
Project Partners
Universities of York, Oxford, Warwick and Southampton.