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Light moves artificial cilia to a complex beat

The beating of hair-like structures that enable microorganisms to swim has been replicated in a polymer material that bends and twists with the help of light-sensitive molecular machines.
  1. Dhanya Babu

    1. Dhanya Babu is at the Stratingh Institute of Chemistry, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, the Netherlands.

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  2. Nathalie Katsonis

    1. Nathalie Katsonis is at the Stratingh Institute of Chemistry, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, the Netherlands.

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Cilia are microscopic hairs that grow on the outer surfaces of unicellular organisms, propelling the organisms through liquids by rhythmically beating in a specific pattern. This beating motion follows complex trajectories to achieve forward propulsion1, a feature known as non-reciprocal movement that it shares with human swimming techniques. But although this motion might be familiar, it is difficult to replicate using synthetic materials, because the beating is driven by the synchronized operation of many nanoscale molecular machines. Writing in Nature, Li et al.2 reveal that light-sensitive artificial molecular machines can be used to drive similarly complex motion in polymer cilia constructed from a single material.

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Nature 605, 37-38 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01080-9

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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