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Micro-Motor - Overview

The motor is one of the most important parts of the bactomotor project. It provides a surface on which the E. coli cells can bind to and the swimming motion of them can be used to propel it. In order to achieve this design, the well-studied biotin-strepatavidin interaction was applied to bind the bacteria to the motor.

During the research process, several kinds of materials were considered to be used to create the motor, and they need to process the following characteristics.

1. They can be shaped into very refined tiny structures.
2. They can undergo chemical modifications through which biotin can be coated on it.
3. The chemical modifications can be done within a biochemistry lab.
4. They need to be rigid, so that the force generated by the bacteria will have a poor efficiency in driving the motor.

With the above considerations taken into, there were 2 types of materials tried to produce the membrane we want. The first one is the commercially available Immobilon-P transfer membrane which is used in labs for western blots, while the other one is inorganic elemental silicon.