Drug Transport Microdevice Mimicking an Idealized Nanoscale Bio-molecular Motor

doi:10.1016/S1672-6529(11)60036-X

Abstract

Abstract:

Molecular motors are nature’s nano-devices and the essential agents of movement that are an integral part of many living organisms. The supramolecular motor, called Nuclear Pore Complex (NPC), controls the transport of all cellular material between the cytoplasm and the nucleus that occurs naturally in biological cells of many organisms. In order to understand the design characteristics of the NPC, we developed a microdevice for drug/fluidic transport mimicking the coarse-grained representation of the NPC geometry through computational fluid dynamic analysis and optimization. Specifically, the role of the central plug in active fluidic/particle transport and passive transport (without central plug) was investigated. Results of flow rate, pressure and velocity profiles obtained from the models indicate that the central plug plays a major role in transport through this biomolecular machine. The results of this investigation show that fluidic transport and flow passages are important factors in designing NPC based nano- and micro-devices for drug delivery.

Key words: molecular motors, nuclear pore complex, geometry, design, simulation

Jae Hwan Lee??Ramana M. Pidaparti?. Drug Transport Microdevice Mimicking an Idealized Nanoscale Bio-molecular Motor[J].J4, 2011, 8(4): 455-463.

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