A synthetic chemomechanical machine driven by ligand-receptor bonding.

The ability to create synthetic chemomechanical machines with engineered functionality promises large technological rewards. However, current efforts in molecular chemistry are restrained by the formidable challenges faced in molecular structure and function prediction. An alternative approach to engineering machines with tailorable chemomechanical functionality is to design Brownian ratchet devices using molecular assemblies. We demonstrate this through the creation of autonomous molecular machines that sense, mechanically react, and extract energy from ligand-receptor binding. We present a specific instantiation, measuring approximately 100 nm in length, which actuates upon detection of a streptavidin ligand. Machines were designed through the tailoring of energy landscapes on 3D DNA origami motifs. We also analyzed the response over a logarithmic concentration ratio (device:ligand) range from 1:10(1) to 1:10(5).