Astier Yann, Bayley Hagan, Howorka Stefan
Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, OX1 3TA, England, UK.
Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2005 Dec;9(6):576-84. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2005.10.012. Epub 2005 Oct 28.
A long-term goal of nanobiotechnology is to build tiny devices that respond to the environment, perform computations and carry out tasks. Considerable progress has been made in building protein components for such devices, and here we describe examples, including self-assembling protein arrays, pores with triggers and switches, and motor proteins harnessed for specific tasks. A major issue that has been successfully addressed in this recent work is the interface between the proteins and other components of the system, such as a metal surface. While further progress is expected in the coming years, the assembly of devices from the components has seen more limited accomplishments. For example, although a wide variety of sensors based on nanobiotechnology has been developed, unresolved problems still confront the construction of complex nanobioelectronic circuits, and the development of nanorobotics with biological components remains a distant dream.
纳米生物技术的一个长期目标是制造能够对环境做出响应、进行计算并执行任务的微型设备。在构建此类设备的蛋白质组件方面已经取得了相当大的进展，在此我们描述一些实例，包括自组装蛋白质阵列、带有触发器和开关的孔以及用于特定任务的驱动蛋白。在这项近期工作中已成功解决的一个主要问题是蛋白质与系统的其他组件（如金属表面）之间的界面问题。尽管预计未来几年会有进一步进展，但由这些组件组装设备的成果仍较为有限。例如，尽管已经开发出了各种各样基于纳米生物技术的传感器，但复杂的纳米生物电子电路的构建仍面临未解决的问题，而具有生物组件的纳米机器人的开发仍然是一个遥远的梦想。
