In this work the construction and dynamic modelling of the Ion Channel Switch (ICS) biosensor is presented. A key feature of the ICS biosensor is that the detection is performed by measuring the timedependent conduction of the engineered tethered membrane which is dependent on the ensemble of aqueous pores and conducting gA dimers present. Using specific molecular components and drive potential...

Stochastic thermodynamics as reviewed here systematically provides a framework for extending the notions of classical thermodynamics such as work, heat and entropy production to the level of individual trajectories of well-defined non-equilibrium ensembles. It applies whenever a non-equilibrium process is still coupled to one (or several) heat bath(s) of constant temperature. Paradigmatic syste...

Ever since their discovery, stable organic radicals have received considerable attention from chemists because of their unique optical, electronic, and magnetic properties. Currently, one of the most appealing challenges for the chemical community is to develop sophisticated artificial molecular machines that can do work by consuming external energy, after the manner of motor proteins. In this ...

The AAA+ ATPase motif is found in proteins from all kingdoms of life. The cellular roles of these proteins are diverse; hence the AAA+ designation for ATPase’s associated with various cellular activities. Many of these enzymes act as machines, using energy generated from the binding and hydrolysis of ATP to remodel a variety of macromolecular assemblies in the cell [1]. For example, AAA+ subuni...

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small RNAs that regulate the translation of thousands of message RNAs and play a profound role in mammalian biology. Over the past 5 years, significant advances have been made towards understanding the pathways that generate miRNAs and the mechanisms by which miRNAs exert their regulatory functions. An emerging theme is that miRNAs are both generated by and utilized by lar...

Double-stranded RNA viruses face two major problems: the endogenous machinery of its host cells does not replicate RNA genomes, and double-stranded RNA provokes strong cellular defence responses such as interferon induction and gene silencing. The solution for the virus is to keep the genomic double-stranded RNA always in a separate container, an icosahedral viral capsid, and to more-or-less au...

The eukaryotic genome is packaged into a periodic nucleoprotein structure termed chromatin. The repeating unit of chromatin, the nucleosome, consists of DNA that is wound nearly two times around an octamer of histone proteins. To facilitate DNA-directed processes in chromatin, it is often necessary to rearrange or to mobilize the nucleosomes. This remodeling of the nucleosomes is achieved by th...

Observation of true rotation has been relatively rare in living systems, but there may be many molecular machines that rotate. Molecular rotations accompanying function can be imaged in real time under an optical microscope by attaching to the protein machine either a small tag such as a single fluorophore or a tag that is huge compared with the size of the protein. As an example of the former ...

The widespread use of controlled molecular-level motion in key natural processes suggests that great rewards could come from bridging the gap between the present generation of synthetic molecular systems, which by and large rely upon electronic and chemical effects to carry out their functions, and the machines of the macroscopic world, which utilize the synchronized movements of smaller parts ...

SKELETAL MUSCLE IS THE LARGEST ORGAN in humans, comprising 50% of the total body mass. While this tissue functions to sustain normal daily physical activity, skeletal muscle is also involved in regulating metabolic homeostasis. For example, early studies in skeletal muscle revealed that glucose transport was stimulated not just by insulin but also by muscle contraction/exercise in an insulin-in...