Successful precise design of artificial ion channels

March 28, 2025

Controlling the number of assembled membrane peptides to create new functions

An international collaborative research group consisting of researchers from the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research, the RIKEN CSRS, the University of Bristol, and King's College London has designed artificial ion channels that do not exist in nature using a unique approach and succeeded in creating these channels in lipid bilayers.

Furthermore, the research team demonstrated that these artificial ion channels exhibit functional structural changes by combining all-atom molecular dynamics simulations using the supercomputers"Fugaku" and RIKEN's Hokusai-BigWaterfall with single-molecule observations.

As evidenced by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, research in "protein design" is advancing rapidly. However, designing proteins that incorporate dynamic structural changes essential for their function and creating membrane proteins that function while embedded in cell membranes remain challenging. This study is expected to contribute to the development of model systems for understanding the functions of ion channels, which are essential for life, and may also lead to the development of new biomolecular
materials such as artificial molecular filters that selectively allow certain molecules to pass through.

 

Original article

Journal of the American Chemical Society doi: 10.1021/jacs.4c13933

A. Niitsu, A. R Thomson, A. J Scott, J. T Sengel, J. Jung, K. R Mahendran, M. Sodeoka, H. Bayley, Y. Sugita, D. N Woolfson, M. I Wallace,

"Rational design principles for de novo α-helical peptide barrels with dynamic conductive channels".

Contact

Mikiko Sodeoka
Group Director
Catalysis and Integrated Research Group