A printable active network actuator built from an engineered biomolecular motor

Leveraging the motion and force of individual molecular motors in a controlled manner to perform macroscopic tasks can provide substantial benefits to many applications, including robotics. Nonetheless, although millimetre-scale movement has been demonstrated with synthetic and biological molecular...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature materials 2021-08, Vol.20 (8), p.1149-1155
Main Authors: Nitta, Takahiro, Wang, Yingzhe, Du, Zhao, Morishima, Keisuke, Hiratsuka, Yuichi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Actuation
Actuators
Automation
Biomaterials
Chemistry and Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Engineering
Fabrication
Filaments
Kinesins - chemistry
Kinesins - metabolism
Light
Manufacturing engineering
Materials Science
Mechanical components
Microtubules - chemistry
Microtubules - metabolism
Molecular Motor Proteins - chemistry
Molecular Motor Proteins - metabolism
Molecular motors
Muscles
Nanotechnology
Optical and Electronic Materials
Protein Engineering
Proteins
Robotics
Robotics - instrumentation
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Summary:Leveraging the motion and force of individual molecular motors in a controlled manner to perform macroscopic tasks can provide substantial benefits to many applications, including robotics. Nonetheless, although millimetre-scale movement has been demonstrated with synthetic and biological molecular motors, their efficient integration into engineered systems that perform macroscopic tasks remains challenging. Here, we describe an active network capable of macroscopic actuation that is hierarchically assembled from an engineered kinesin, a biomolecular motor, and microtubules, resembling the contractile units in muscles. These contracting materials can be formed in desired areas using patterned ultraviolet illumination, allowing their incorporation into mechanically engineered systems, being also compatible with printing technologies. Due to the designed filamentous assembly of kinesins, the generated forces reach the micronewton range, enabling actuation of millimetre-scale mechanical components. These properties may be useful for the fabrication of soft robotic systems with advanced functionalities. Patterned contracting networks composed of biomolecular motors and filaments achieve millimetre-scale actuation of mechanical structures with light-triggered molecular stimuli.
ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660
1476-4660
DOI:10.1038/s41563-021-00969-6