Nanotechnology Now

Our NanoNews Digest Sponsors
Heifer International



Home > Press > New active filaments mimic biology to transport nano-cargo: A new design for a fully biocompatible motility engine transports colloidal particles faster than diffusion with active filaments

Abstract:
Inspired by micro-scale motions of nature, a group of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, in Chennai, India, has developed a new design for transporting colloidal particles, tiny cargo suspended in substances such as fluids or gels, more rapidly than is currently possible by diffusion.

New active filaments mimic biology to transport nano-cargo: A new design for a fully biocompatible motility engine transports colloidal particles faster than diffusion with active filaments

Washington, DC | Posted on January 11th, 2017

Fluid friction determines micro-scale inertia in fluid. This means, for instance, blood cells swimming within blood encounter roughly the same amount of drag that a human would experience attempting to swim through molasses.

As the group reports in The Journal of Chemical Physics, from AIP Publishing, they applied and then extended a model of active filaments that includes these frictional hydrodynamic interactions, specifically as they relate to the speed and efficiency analysis of transporting colloidal particles.

By doing so, the researchers were able to design a realizable active transport engine, significantly advancing the state of the art for studying the crucial role of momentum conservation in active systems.

"Microorganisms have developed specialized organelles, such as cilia and flagella, to overcome the challenges of, in the words of Nobel laureate [Edward] Purcell, 'life at a low Reynolds number,'" said Raj Kumar Manna, a graduate student in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. "Recent experiments demonstrated that flagella-like 'beating' could be achieved in vitro, proving it's possible to obtain a periodic 'beating' motion without complex biological regulation."

Combining this concept of biologically independent regulation with "successful synthesis of self-propelling, inorganic particles," he also said, allowed them to create a completely artificial microscopic transport system.

The group initially set out to study designs of such transport systems via computer simulation to find designs for their "ultimate synthesis" within the laboratory.

According to Manna, most of the concepts involved in their work are more than a century old, dating from the mid-1800s with mathematician George Stokes' work on the eponymous equations for slow viscous flow. Physicist Marian Smoluchowski then used that work in the early 1900s to compute the friction, or the so-called "hydrodynamic interaction," between spherical particles moving in a viscous fluid. "We applied these techniques to the new situation of swimming within a viscous fluid," said Manna.

With these techniques they showed that it's possible to transport colloidal cargo via synthetic active filaments. "We've provided a design for a fully biocompatible motility engine that can be put to a wide variety of uses," Manna said. And such variety is offered by a surprising finding.

"Speed and efficiency aren't related within these systems," said Manna. "As an analogy, consider the energy spent by a 100-meter sprinter and a marathon runner. For a given budget of energy, it can be expended in a brief burst to achieve high speed, or more slowly to achieve long distances. This requires different design considerations, so our work provides a way of switching the behavior of our synthetic swimmer between these two modes."

The work has potential implications for procedures such as targeted drug delivery and insemination. More generally, the work is relevant for therapeutic interventions where defective motility in physiology is an issue.

"It's difficult to predict the timing for a computer design to be realized experimentally, and then go beyond clinical trials to medical use. But, if past development within this area is any guide, we expect some of these technologies to become feasible within a decade or so," Manna said.

As far as what's next for the group, Manna said, "We'd like to include increasing degrees of realism within our analysis to achieve an environment more akin to blood, look at geometries that are more like branched capillaries, explore designs for greater energy efficiency, and also collaborate more closely with experimentalists."

####

About American Institute of Physics
The Journal of Chemical Physics publishes concise and definitive reports of significant research in the methods and applications of chemical physics. See jcp.aip.org.

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
AIP Media Line

301-209-3090

Copyright © American Institute of Physics

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark:
Delicious Digg Newsvine Google Yahoo Reddit Magnoliacom Furl Facebook

Related Links

The article, "Colloidal transport by active filaments," is authored by Raj Kumar Manna, P.B. Sunil Kumar and Ronojoy Adhikari. The article will appear in The Journal of Chemical Physics Jan. 10, 2017 (DOI: 10.1063/1.49972010). After that date, it can be accessed at:

Related News Press

News and information

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

How surface roughness influences the adhesion of soft materials: Research team discovers universal mechanism that leads to adhesion hysteresis in soft materials March 8th, 2024

Two-dimensional bimetallic selenium-containing metal-organic frameworks and their calcinated derivatives as electrocatalysts for overall water splitting March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

Possible Futures

Two-dimensional bimetallic selenium-containing metal-organic frameworks and their calcinated derivatives as electrocatalysts for overall water splitting March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Nanomedicine

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Discoveries

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Announcements

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

How surface roughness influences the adhesion of soft materials: Research team discovers universal mechanism that leads to adhesion hysteresis in soft materials March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Nanobiotechnology

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Research partnerships

Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024

How surface roughness influences the adhesion of soft materials: Research team discovers universal mechanism that leads to adhesion hysteresis in soft materials March 8th, 2024

'Sudden death' of quantum fluctuations defies current theories of superconductivity: Study challenges the conventional wisdom of superconducting quantum transitions January 12th, 2024

Development of zinc oxide nanopagoda array photoelectrode: photoelectrochemical water-splitting hydrogen production January 12th, 2024

NanoNews-Digest
The latest news from around the world, FREE




  Premium Products
NanoNews-Custom
Only the news you want to read!
 Learn More
NanoStrategies
Full-service, expert consulting
 Learn More











ASP
Nanotechnology Now Featured Books




NNN

The Hunger Project