Bacterial ratchet motors
Open accessAbstract
Self-propelling bacteria are a nanotechnology dream. These unicellular organisms are not just capable of living and reproducing, but they can swim very efficiently, sense the environment, and look for food, all packaged in a body measuring a few microns. Before such perfect machines can be artificially assembled, researchers are beginning to explore new ways to harness bacteria as propelling units for microdevices. Proposed strategies require the careful task of aligning and binding bacterial cells on synthetic surfaces in order to have them work cooperatively. Here we show that asymmetric environments can produce a spontaneous and unidirectional rotation of nanofabricated objects immersed in an active bacterial bath. The propulsion mechanism is provided by the self-assembly of motile Escherichia coli cells along the rotor boundaries. Our results highlight the technological implications of active matter’s ability to overcome the restrictions imposed by the second law of thermodynamics on equilibrium passive fluids.
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The abovementioned properties (fault tolerance, scalability, robustness, flexibility, adaptivity) have been demonstrated using mathematical models, abstract particle systems, or multiagent systems in the context of swarms performing different behaviors.
“The abovementioned properties have been demonstrated using mathematical models, abstract particle systems, or multiagent systems in the context of swarms performing different behaviors (e.g., aggregation [70], collective motion [71], collective decision-making [20], and pattern formation [72]).”
From Swarm Robotics: Past, Present, and Future [Point of View] (2021) · cites this paper as [70]
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Swarm Robotics: Past, Present, and Future [Point of View]
Dorigo, M., Theraulaz, G., & Trianni, V. (2021) · Proceedings of the IEEE · doi:10.1109/jproc.2021.3072740 · Cited by 401 · see citing works
Targeting 3D Bladder Cancer Spheroids with Urease-Powered Nanomotors
Hortelão, A. C., Carrascosa, R., Murillo-Cremaes, N., Patiño, T., & Sánchez, S. (2019) · ACS Nano · doi:10.1021/acsnano.8b06610 · Cited by 287 · see citing works
- Authors
- Di Leonardo, R., Angelani, L., Dell’Arciprete, D., Ruocco, G., Iebba, V., Schippa, S., Conte, M. P., Mecarini, F., De Angelis, F., & Di Fabrizio, E.
- Affiliations
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici, c/o Università di Roma “Sapienza,” I-00185, Rome, Italy;
- National Research Council (IT)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
- Italian Institute of Technology (IT)
- Nanobioscience Department, Italian Institute of Technology, I-16163, Genova, Italy; and
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2010-05-08
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 21
- Pages
- 9541-9545
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC2906854
- OpenAlex
- W2065408165
- Cited by
- 707
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 35 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 55 · 2021: 56 · 2020: 78 · 2019: 44 · 2018: 42 · 2017: 63 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 34 · 2014: 40 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 17.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- ArTS Archivio della ricerca di Trieste (University of Trieste https://www.units.it/) (submittedVersion)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Condensed Matter Physics › Micro and Nano Robotics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Microtubule and mitosis dynamics
- Keywords
- active matter, Escherichia coli, unidirectional rotation, asymmetric environments, bacterial self-assembly, active fluids, second law of thermodynamics, bacterial propulsion, microdevices
- MeSH terms
- Escherichia coli, Microscopy, Electron, Scanning, Movement, Thermodynamics
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