This is an abstract for a presentation given at the Eighth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology . There will be a link from here to the full article when it is available on the web.
Complexity is one of the defining aspects of life.
In a cell, supramolecular assemblies and organelles perform tightly regulated and integrated tasks. An artificial light harvesting system is employed to power proton transport across a liposomal bilayer with light energy. In this integrated system we can therefore nonintrusively control the motion of the microtubules through light exposure. The experimental setup consists of a flow cell mounted on an epi-fluorescence optical microscope and illuminated by a laser diode. The ATP-generating vesicles floated freely in the buffer solution.