Biomimetic molecular switches

Abstract

For the last decades, scientists have tried to build efficient molecular devices but, until now, every attempt to design artificial systems pales beside the nature’s molecular machines at work. By learning from nature, we could be able to make use of the excellent properties refined by slow evolution. Here we will briefly review some of the better-known natural molecular machines as an inspiration for the design of biomimetic artificial switches. Taking the nature’s work as a starting point, we will specify some of the requirements to build efficient molecular machines.