What does the future hold for molecular machines?

James Arthur Cooper is a 2021 Foresight Fellow in Transmembrane Molecular Nanotechnology and the Chair of Foresight’s Molecular Machines Group. He was born and raised in Shropshire, England. He obtained his MChem (2010) from the University of York and his PhD (2014) from the University of Bristol, where he studied transmembrane anion transport under the guidance of Professor Anthony Davis. James then moved to the University of Edinburgh to work as a postdoctoral research associate with Professor Scott Cockroft, interrogating single molecules and reactions using transmembrane protein nanopores. He then took up a postdoctoral position at Northwestern University in the United States, working with Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart and Professor Douglas Philp, studying molecular machines, systems chemistry and self-replicating molecules.

James returned to the United Kingdom in September 2020 to take up a position as Lecturer in Organic Chemistry at the University of Reading. His group’s research interests focus on the study of systems chemistry, membrane transport and molecular machines, particularly the development of stimuli-responsive membrane-bound assemblies and coupling replication processes with compartmentalised architectures. 

Artificial Molecular Motors and Programmable Molecular Synthesizers

David Alan Leigh (born 1963), FRS FRSE FRSC, is a British chemist, Royal Society Research Professor and, since 2014, the Sir Samuel Hall Chair of Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Manchester. He was previously the Forbes Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh (2001–2012) and Professor of Synthetic Chemistry at the University of Warwick (1998–2001). He is noted for the development of new methods to construct rotaxanes, catenanes and molecular knots and for the invention of some of the first synthetic molecular motors and functional nanomachines. Using mechanically-interlocked molecular architectures he prepared a novel molecular information ratchet that employs a mechanism reminiscent of Maxwell’s demon. He has developed a rotaxane based photoactive molecular switch with the capability of changing the hydrophobicity of a surface and thus causing small droplets of liquid to move up hill, against the force of gravity. He holds a Feynman Prize in Theory.

Commercial Applications of Nano/Micro Machines Brainstorm

Ayusman Sen is the Verne M. Willaman Professor of Chemistry at the Penn State Elberly College of Science. His research focuses on self-powered nano and micromotors and pumps. He received numerous honors and awards, including the Langmuir Lecture Award from the American Chemical Society, and the Humboldt Prize. He is an Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and won a Medal by the Chemical Research Society of India.

Molecular Motors

Nicolas Giuseppone received his PhD in asymmetric catalysis (laboratory of Prof. H.B. Kagan, Orsay University), performed a post-doctoral research in total synthesis (laboratory of Prof. K.C. Nicolaou, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA), and entered the field of supramolecular chemistry as a CNRS research associate (laboratory of Prof. J.-M. Lehn, University of Strasbourg).

In 2008 he started his own research group, became Associate Professor, and was awarded the ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council in 2010. In 2013 he was promoted Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of Strasbourg and nominated as a junior member of the Institut Universitaire the France (IUF). In 2016, he was promoted Distinguished Professor.

He is deputy director of the Institut Charles Sadron – CNRS (since 2012), and director of the Research Federation on Materials and Nanoscience for the Grand Est region (since 2018).

His research interests are focused on supramolecular chemistry, molecular machines, and functional materials.

Protein-based Materials and Assemblies

David Baker is the director of the Institute for Protein Design, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professor in Biochemistry, and an adjunct professor of genome sciences, bioengineering, chemical engineering, computer science, and physics at the University of Washington. His research group is focused on the design of macromolecular structures and functions.He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry with Randy Schekman at the University of California, Berkeley, and did postdoctoral work in biophysics with David Agard at UCSF. Dr. Baker has received awards from the National Science Foundation, the Beckman Foundation, and the Packard Foundation. He is the recipient of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Irving Sigal and Hans Neurath awards from the Protein Society, the Overton Prize from the ISCB, the Feynman Prize from the Foresight Institute, the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize, the Sackler prize in biophysics, and the Centenary Award from the Biochemical society. Sixty-five of his mentees have gone on to independent faculty positions, he has published over 500 research papers, been granted over 100 patents, and co-founded 11 companies. Dr. Baker is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a project leader with The Audacious Project.

DNA Origami and Programmable Biomaterials

William is overseeing an effort to apply Synthetic Biology approaches to the development of self-assembling DNA nanostructures and devices for use in biomedical applications. In addition to carrying genetic information, DNA is increasingly being explored for its use as a building material. This new process is called DNA origami because a long strand of DNA can be programmed to fold in on itself to create specific shapes, much as a single sheet of paper is folded to create a variety of designs in the traditional Japanese art. Using long biologically produced DNA strands to construct particles with precisely specified shapes, William is able to approximate a level of complexity that rivals that of the molecular machinery found in cells. To achieve structures of even greater complexity, his laboratory is pioneering methods for hierarchical assembly of these particles into three-dimensional networks with site-specific control over chemical functionalization and mechanical actuation. Working in Programmable Biomaterials at the Wyss, William most recently created nanodevices made of DNA that self-assemble and can be programmed to move and change shape on demand. In contrast to existing nanotechnologies, these programmable nanodevices are highly suitable for medical applications because DNA is both biocompatible and biodegradable. William is a Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and the Department of Cancer Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In 2008, William received a New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health, and in 2013, he was named as a Blavatnik National Awards Finalist. He holds a Feynman Prize in Experiment.

Design and Study of Single-molecule Devices on Surfaces

Christian Joachim is a Research Director Fellow at CEMES-CNRS in Toulouse, an Adjunct Professor in Quantum Physics, ISAE-Sup’Aero, Toulouse, and an Adjunct Professor in Nanoscience and Quantum Enginnering. With J.K. Gimzewski, in 1996, he learnt how to manipulate a large molecule at room temperature using the tip of a STM, and, as early as in 1997, learnt how to change the electronic structure of a single molecule by acting on its conformation or on its geometry. This was the conclusion of his work started with A. Aviram 10 years before, a proof that molecular devices, at a single molecule basis, can really work at least at the lab scale. Single molecular machines follows with the discovery of the first molecular rotor (1.2 nm in diameter) in 1998. In 2001 and 2003, the first prototype of mono-molecular robots came from those pioneering experiments. The first single molecular amplifier started in 1997, the design of hybrid molecular circuit with more than 1000 single C60 molecular transistors in 2000, the first intramolecular switch in 2001 in collaboration with Dr. F. Moresco and Dr. G. Meyer from F.U. Berlin, and the first mono- molecular circuit in 2003 resulted all from those pioneering results on a single C60 molecule. In parallel, the manipulation of a single molecule on a metallic surface opened the way to contact a single molecular wire as early as in 1999, also in collaboration with Dr. J.K. Gimzewski. This led to pioneering work on mono-molecular electronics and atomic scale technology and the seminal 2000 Nature review paper. He holds a Feynman Prize in both Theory and Experiment.

Nano- and Microscale Molecular Machines

Ayusman Sen is the Verne M. Willaman Professor of Chemistry at the Penn State Elberly College of Science. His research focuses on self-powered nano and micromotors and pumps. He received numerous honors and awards, including the Langmuir Lecture Award from the American Chemical Society, and the Humboldt Prize. He is an Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and won a Medal by the Chemical Research Society of India.