{
  "id": 16655392,
  "title": "Simulations reveal design rules for high-performance DNA particle motors",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/26/simulations-reveal-design-rules-for-high-performance-dna-particle",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-26T20:20:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-10-simulations-reveal-high-dna-particle.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Researchers at the Institute for Molecular Science (IMS) and Sokendai have used computational simulations to uncover key design principles for high-speed DNA particle motors. These artificial molecular motors move at about 30 nanometers per second, which is slower than natural motor proteins that move at 100 to 1,000 nm per second. However, understanding how to improve their performance could lead to breakthroughs in molecular machines, sensing, and computation technologies.\n\nThe motors work via a \"burnt-bridge Brownian ratchet\" mechanism. Single-stranded DNA on the particle binds to RNA on a surface through hybridization. The enzyme RNase H then hydrolyzes the bound RNA, preventing backward motion and directing the particle's random Brownian motion toward the forward direction.\n\nThe simulations revealed that while particle size doesn't strongly affect speed, it plays a crucial role in determining other performance metrics. Large particles (5,000 nm diameter) take longer steps but also pause for extended periods between steps. This combination of large steps and pauses compensates for each other, allowing the motors to maintain a consistent speed regardless of size.\n\nAdditionally, larger particles can form more DNA/RNA duplexes with the surface, increasing their run length. They can also hydrolyze RNA more efficiently along their trajectories, leading to greater unidirectionality. These findings show that particle size influences different motor properties in distinct ways.\n\nInterestingly, the simulations showed that increasing key reaction rates - DNA/RNA hybridization, RNase H binding, and RNA hydrolysis - by tenfold could boost predicted motor speeds to over 200 nm/s across all sizes. However, slow rotational diffusion in larger particles limits their speed acceleration. This suggests there is still room for improving the performance of large DNA-particle motors.\n\nIn summary, these simulations provide valuable design principles for creating high-performance artificial molecular motors. By optimizing specific reaction rates, researchers could potentially engineer motors that outperform natural motor proteins, opening up new possibilities for molecular machines and advanced technologies.",
  "summary": "DNA-nano/microparticle motors are among the fastest artificial molecular motors reported to date, moving at approximately 30 nm per second. However, they are still slower than natural motor proteins (approximately 100–1,000 nm per second), and further improvements in design and performance are required.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}