Design of an On-Chip Nanoscale Clock Powered by a Biomolecular Motor Protein

The integration of inorganic systems with biomolecular systems presents many challenges. Not only must several interfaces which preserve the activity of the biomolecule be designed, but also methods of characterizing the properties of the individual biomolecule to verify its activity must be specified. The design and progress in the fabrication of a photonic clock which is driven by a single biomolecular motor protein are described. This local oscillator is comprised of a circular DNA template which is driven by the biomolecular motor T7 RNA polymerase. A fluorescent reporter base incorporated into the DNA template provides the reporter function. Several external factors, which influence the rate of the transcription reaction, can be used to vary the frequency and duration of the oscillation.