During the last three decades both modern engineering and bioscience research have witnessed experimental and theoretical advances which have led to the emergence of nano- to microscale engineering and biomolecular research as major focus for fundamental exploration and applications. This research is concerned with the properties and interactions of biomolecular motors, ubiquitous nanoscale protein machines that are principally responsible for nano- to microscale transport processes insides eukaryotic cells. The hallmark of these systems is their complex dynamics and organization which are widely believed to be crucial for understanding, manipulating, and finally controlling these systems for (bio-) technological use. The main goal of the work is to characterize and exploit the nonlinear dynamic mechanisms which govern the cooperative behavior of multiple molecular motors carrying a common cargo.
The proposed work will answer several crucial scientific questions, and will impact a large number of applications. Understanding how motor proteins function and cooperate to transport cargoes is a key engineering element in applications such as drug delivery and design, and has a strong potential to impact medicine (e.g. clinical paradigms and treatments of an array of diseases such as Parkinson's and cancer). Such understanding can be obtained by an approach such as proposed herein, where quantitative, nonlinear dynamics approaches are used to solve this important problem in cell biology. Also, the proposed work will provide fundamental understanding and analysis tools for bio-mechano-chemical processes. The proposal includes strong integrated educational components and outreach activities.
