A Design of an Autonomous Molecule Loading/Transporting/Unloading System Using DNA Hybridization and Biomolecular Linear Motors in Molecular Communication

This paper describes research challenges in Molecular Communication, a new communication paradigm inspired by biological systems. Molecular communication allows biological and artificially-created nanomachines to communicate over a short distance using molecules. In molecular communication, a sender nanomachine encodes information onto molecules (information molecules). Information molecules then propagate to a receiver, and the receiver, upon receiving the information molecules, reacts biochemically. One of major research challenges in molecular communication is building a molecular propagation system that directionally transports information molecules from a sender to a receiver in an artificially created aqueous environment without or with little external control. This paper proposes a design of an autonomous molecular propagation system that loads, transports, and unloads information molecules using DNA hybridization and biomolecular linear motors. In the proposed system, protein filaments (i.e., microtubules and actin filaments) glide over immobilized motor proteins (i.e., kinesins, dyneins, and myosins) along preconfigured microlithographic tracks, and these gliding protein filaments are used as carrier molecules that transport information molecules from a sender to a receiver. In addition, DNA hybridization is used to load and unload the information molecules onto and from the carrier molecules. In the proposed system, these loading/transporting/unloading processes require no external control.