DIPANJAN BHATTACHARJEE

Enzymes as self-propulsive catalytic nanomotors: development of laboratory of active matters

Active matters that transduce chemical energy into mechanical motion and capable of showing self-propulsion are examples of biomimetic nonequilibrium systems. Enzymes as catalytic nanomotors are one example of active matter which draws great interest for their possible applications in drug or antidote delivery at specific locations. In the experimental study catalase and urease enzyme molecules show enhanced diffusion in presence of their substrate, hydrogen peroxide and urea respectively in a concentration-dependent manner. Using optical microscopy and dynamic light scattering analysis it has been shown that the effective diffusion coefficient, differ from Brownian motion, increased by 14% & 20% for urease and catalase respectively. The study opened up new biomedical applications such as intelligent enzyme-powered drug delivery vehicles, separation of catalyst molecules based on activity, among others.