he machine that is a cell is more than the sum of its protein parts. A large step toward understanding how those parts are so effectively put together has been taken by Patrick Aloy, Rob Russell (EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany), and colleagues. Their work has identified ‫ف‬ 100 yeast protein complexes and predicted interactions within and among many of them. " We were working on a large scale to mod...

We explain microscopically why split attractor flows, known to underlie certain stationary BPS solutions of four dimensional N = 2 supergravity, are the relevant data to describe wrapped D-branes in Calabi-Yau compactifcations of type II string theory. We work entirely in the context of the classical geometry of A-branes, i.e. special Lagrangian submanifolds, avoiding both the use of homologica...

The design of a machine which is composed of homogeneous mechanical units is described. We show the design of both hardware and control software of the unit. Each unit can connect with other units and change the connection by itself. In spite of its simple mechanism, a set of these units realizes various mechanical functions. We developed control software of the unit which realizes “self-assemb...

The ribosome is an ancient ribonucleoprotein machine universally responsible for catalyzing protein synthesis. Within eukaryotic cells, mitochondria contain their own ribosomes (mitoribosomes), which are highly modified ribosomes of bacterial descent, specialized for the synthesis of a handful of proteins, all essential for the biogenesis of the oxidative phosphorylation system. With high-resol...

We look at robotic systems made of separate discrete components that, by selfassembling, can organize into physical structures of growing size. We review 22 such systems, exhibiting components ranging from passive mechanical parts to mobile robots. We present a taxonomy of the systems, and discuss their design and function. We then focus on a particular system, the swarm-bot. In swarm-bot, the ...

An abstract model of self-assembling systems is presented where assembly instructions are written as conformational switches-local rules that specify conformational changes of a component. The model, the self-assembling automaton, is defined as a sequential rule-based machine that operates on one-dimensional strings of symbols. Classes of self-assembling automata are defined based on classes of...

The Problem: The problem is to design an autonomous mobile robot that is self-assembling from independently mobile segments. We choose a design inspired by the constitution and motion of snakes or worms. In such a construction, the body of the robot is segmented and each segment can be designed as an autonomous entity, which is able to move and couple with other segments. Several of these segme...

Transition metals function as cofactors in specific proteins, catalyzing electron exchange reactions, binding substrates and stabilizing protein structure. Studies of human diseases and of model organisms have defined many of the molecular details of metal uptake, trafficking, and excretion. The current challenge is to integrate these details into a systematic view of metal content, speciation,...

Host complexes formed through non-covalent interactions comprise a rapidly growing area of supramolecular chemistry. In particular, three-dimensional hosts which reversibly encapsulate guests hold great potential as both novel tools in chemistry and as biological models. Here, we describe the design, synthesis, and study of several selfassembling molecular capsules. In particular, we discuss ho...