Another Zenith to Medical Science: Scientists have developed the first man-made molecular pump which is able to transport key proteins to cells for its functioning and can be used to power artificial muscles. This system on carrier proteins was modeled by J. Fraser Stoddart and coworkers at Northwestern University. This system basically can pump ions, electrons, protons or molecules across membranes of cells to produce energy.

Methodology

The new machine mimics the pumping mechanism of life-sustaining proteins. These proteins can move small molecules around living cells to metabolize and store energy from food. The energy stored in their pump will power artificial muscles and other molecular machines. It should be noted that the artificial pump draws power from chemical reactions and drive molecules step-by step from a low-energy state to a high-energy state, far away from equilibrium.

Our molecular pump is radical chemistry – an ingenious way of transferring energy from molecule to molecule, the way nature does. The ring-shaped molecules we work with repel one another under normal circumstances,” said Chuyang Cheng, first author of the study.

The artificial pump is able to syphon off some of the energy that changes hands during a chemical reaction and uses it to push the rings together,” Cheng said.

The tiny molecular machine threads the rings around a nanoscopic chain – a sort of axle – and squeezes the rings together, with only a few nanometres separating them. At present, the artificial molecular pump is able to force only two rings together, but researchers believe it won’t be long before they can extend its operation to tens of rings and store more energy.

Compared to nature’s system, the artificial pump is very simple, but it is a start, researchers say. They have designed a novel system, using kinetic barriers, that allows molecules to flow uphill energetically.