A nanomotor is a molecular device capable of converting energy into movement and forces on the order of the pico-newtons.
A proposed branch of research is the integration of molecular motor proteins found in living cells into molecular motors implanted in artificial devices. Such a motor protein would be able to move a "cargo" within that device, similarly to how kinesin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinesin) moves various molecules along tracks of microtubules inside cells.
Starting and stopping the movement of such motor proteins would involve caging the ATP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine_triphosphate) in molecular structures sensitive to UV light, pulses of UV illumination would thus provide pulses of movement.
A nanomotor is a nanotechnology-based device, operating at a molecular level, and which is capable of effecting forces of the order of piconewtons.
These molecular motors, or ‘nanomotors’ as they are dubbed, can be implanted in artificial devices to perform much the same functions that their living-cell counterparts perform.
Factors that affect movement speeds of nanomotors include the torque magnitude involved and the viscosity of the surrounding medium.
While it is not the first such DNA motor, Tan said his nanomotor is the first to be built from a single molecule rather than several different DNA molecules.
Tan said it is difficult to predict when nanomotors, whether built from single or multiple molecules, will reach the stage that they can be used along with a drug or clinical treatment.
He said the next step in his research is to coax his nanomotor to move a tiny particle from one place to another, demonstrating that it can perform a potentially useful task.
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