Protein-Based Computers
Genetically engineered proteins may provide the tools NASA needs to create nanoscale electronic circuits for future computers and sensors.
Research Task: Chaperones for Nanotechnology (ITSR/BN)
Principal Investigator: Jonathan Trent, Ph.D., NASA Ames Research Center
As current lithographic techniques for etching semiconductor circuits rapidly approach their physical limits, scientists are looking for new and less expensive ways to fabricate circuits at infinitesimally small scales. NASA scientists have discovered a new tool that may help accomplish this goal—proteins. Dr. Jonathan Trent's ITSR research team at NASA Ames Research Center is focused on demonstrating the feasibility of using proteins as tools for manipulating nanoscale materials for use in electronics, and particularly in computers. Trent's team has genetically engineered "heat shock" proteins (HSP60s) to take advantage of their self-assembling capability and fabricate ordered arrays of quantum dots (QDs).
QDs are nanoparticles of metal or semiconductor material that have quantum properties. If they can be arranged and manipulated, they may provide the basis for future generations of electronic and photonic devices. These devices would take advantage of their quantum effects to store and process unprecedented amounts of information at very high speeds.
While studying how the HSP60s protect their hosts from heat, Trent's team discovered that these proteins spontaneously form rings called "chaperonins" and other interesting structures. The team's novel contribution—described in a research paper published in Nature Materials—was to genetically engineer the protein so that, when it self-assembles into a two-dimensional lattice, the team can use it as a template to organize metal and semiconductor particles. The genetically engineered protein rings enabled the QD nanoparticles to bind with the protein array. These protein-based structures rival the precise, regular arrays of metals and semiconductors that the electronics industry uses today on a larger scale.
Trent's team next intends to incorporate different functionality into the proteins, so that they accommodate additional types of metal or semiconductor nanoparticles. The research team also intends to fine-tune the properties of the arrays by controlling nanoparticle sizing, spacing and composition, and the interaction of the nanoparticles.
As Trent says, "Proteins are the building blocks for structures as complex and elaborate as humans; the challenge is to see if these same proteins can be harnessed to build functional nanoscale electronic devices that advance the exploration of space and improve our lives on Earth."
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