Center for Functional Nanomaterials Seminar

Functioning of living cells requires selective transport of proteins and other molecular signals into and out of the cell, as well as between various cell compartments. Much of such transport is conducted by nano-scale channels, which function without direct input of metabolic energy and without channel transitions from an 'open' to a 'closed' state during transport. Mechanisms of selectivity of such channels provide inspiration for nano-technology, in particular for design of selective nano-molecular sensors and sieves.
Precise mechanisms of selective transport through such 'always open' biological and artificial nano-channels are still unknown. I will present a theoretical model to explain the mechanisms of selectivity of transport through such nano-channels. The theory provides a simple physical mechanism for selectivity based on the differences in the kinetics of transport through the channel between different molecular species. In particular, the theory explains how the channels can remain selective in the presence of vast amount of non-specific competition. The theoretical predictions have explained previous experimental results and have lead to the creation of a prototype artificial molecular nano-filter.