Nanomechanical Functional Programming of Cellular and Synthetic Systems - NCCR MSE

Nanomechanical Functional Programming of Cellular and Synthetic Systems

Nanotechnological approaches and tools to reprogram nanoreactors and living cells will be developed. Reprogramming will be facilitated using a variety of membrane proteins (pumps, transporters and receptors), genes or peptides.
Nanotechnological approaches and tools to reprogram nanoreactors and living cells will be developed. Reprogramming will be facilitated using a variety of membrane proteins (pumps, transporters and receptors), genes or peptides.

This project programs nanoscopic reaction compartments, nanoreactors, vesicles, nanocontainers, organelles and cells with functional molecular modules that can be of biological, bioengineered or synthetic origin.

A wide variety of functional molecular modules that assemble into a toolbox are and will be established within the NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering. Molecular modules from this toolbox will be used to functionally program molecular factories.

AFM-based nanotechnological methods to manipulate single cells, organelles and proteins at (sub-)nanometre resolution will be further developed and applied to program for example, nanoreactors, organelles or cells with functional modules such as proteins that have been functionally engineered.

The nanomechanical approach to functionally reprogram targets using molecular modules is worldwide unique and enables detergent free, stoichiometric insertion of molecular modules into targets. Subsequently, a method will be developed to program molecular factories by the nanomechanical extraction and for the insertion of functional molecular modules.

Publications