BUILDING AND MANIPULATING NEW MOLECULES

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: A research scientist at the University of Copenhagen is able to bind molecules onto inorganic material. It enables molecules to be tailored with specific properties – for example as transporters of new drugs.

Professor Thomas Bjørnholm: “Nanoresearch in Denmark is world Nanoresearch has endless opportunities.”

Some call it “The biology of the future”. Synthetic biology is a research area in the border zone between chemistry, biophysics and molecular biology.

Research is conducted at nano level –which is exceedingly small scale – a nanometer is a billionth of a meter – and where the aim of the research is to create tiny molecular building blocks which can be tailored for a large number of purposes.

Nanoresearch in Denmark is worldclass, according to Professor Thomas Bjørnholm of the Nano-Science Center at the University of Copenhagen. Foreign research scientists are flocking to both Copenhagen and Århus, Denmark’s second largest city, to join in where things are happening. A similar influx is taking place in biotechnology, where Denmark is among Europe’s elite.

Artificial systems
“Biology and nano are really two sides of the same coin,” says Thomas Bjørnholm.

“Nanotechnology is about being able to see and operate with molecules on their own scale. When you can do that, you can also start to manipulate molecules. To create artificial biological systems and thus open up a new world of opportunity.” Professor Bjørnholm does not say it will be easy – development has just started. But at the Nano-Science Center in Copenhagen, research scientists are already well advanced. This is especially due to the efforts of the Greek research scientist Dimitrios Stamou, who has created the fundamental platform which makes it possible to tailor artificial cells.

’Intelligent drugs’
“It is to Dimitrios Stamou’s credit that we now are able to bind molecules onto inorganic surfaces such as a chip,” says Bjørnholm. “You can then start ’controlling’ the molecules and exploit their natural abilities to recognise and accumulate in

large biological systems in the way we want it.” One of the focus areas of the nanoresearch scientists is to construct biological systems which can be put into the patient’s body. The ’intelligent drug’ brings with it a small container of medicine, which is placed at the exact location where it is needed, and at the right dosage. Another research angle is to be able to release the drug in the desired place via a light beam, an electrical impulse or when the drug encounters a chemical compound.

“If for instance we can get electrodes into the container, then we might be able to create electronic sensors at nanoscale. Sensors which can see, hear or smell. The opportunities are endless,” says Thomas Bjørnholm.

http://www.nano.ku.dk