Design of biofunctional molecular and supramolecular systems: Membrane transport models

Abstract

Cell membranes show a variety of functions that are essential for cell survival. Among them, active transport is a typical high functionality that the biomembrane system has realized. To understand and mimic the functionality of the biomembrane transport systems, carrier-mediated active transport systems are studied. Affinity switching of the carrier, i.e., high substrate affinity in the extraction and low affinity in the release processes, is the effective approach to achieve artificial active transport. Free energy to drive this active transport is supplied in the affinity-swtiching process. This paper describes our recent results on design and performance of novel molecular and supramolecular active transport systems, in which carriers are designed by the affinity-switching concept.