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206 Biomimetics: Biologically Inspired Technologies

Figure 7.3 A ‘‘nanorobot’’ flowing inside a blood vessel finds an infected cell. The nanorobot attaches to the cell
and projects a drug to repair or destroy the infected cell.

Some bio-nanorobots can be conceived as able to manufacture additional elements and various
structures. There may also be robots that not only perform physical labor, but also sense the
environment and react accordingly. There is no doubt that biomedical applications will be both a
driving force and a beneficiary of these developments.

7.2.2 Brief Review of Biomolecular Machines

While the majority of the prior research in this field has largely focused on biomolecular motors,
several other nano components such as sensors and even assemblies of components in the form of
mechanisms have been studied. In the macroscopic world, what we understand by a ‘‘motor’’ is a
machine capable of imparting motion associated by the conversion of energy. Biomolecular motors
have attracted a lot of attention recently because: (1) they operate at high efficiency, (2) some could
be self-replicating and hence cheaper in mass usage, and (3) they are readily available in nature
(Boyer, 1998). A number of enzymes function as nano-scale biological motors, such as kinesin
(Block, 1998; Schnitzer and Block, 1997), RNA polymerase (Wang et al., 1998), myosin (Kitamura
et al., 1999), and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthase, function as nano-scale biological motors
(Montemagno and Bachand, 1999; Bachand and Montemagno, 2000; Soong et al., 2000; Noji et al.,
1997; Yasuda et al., 1998; Walker, 1998).