Based on estimates of parts count and power dissipation, components of molecular size could make desk-top computers of the future more powerful than all computers in existence today combined. Devices smaller than a red blood cell could be constructed to circulate through the body and remove fat deposits or destroy infectious organisms. These are potential long-term applications of nanotechnology, but the conference started with an examination of where we stand today in efforts to engineer molecular systems. Several venture capitalists were present to scout out near-term commercial applications of these efforts. If the pattern of electrostatic charge on individual molecules is properly designed, then it is possible to manipulate many properties of resulting molecular aggregates.
Fabrication is currently a major limit in building and commercializing smaller devices.
Tracy Handel of Du Pont discussed the de novo design and construction of a protein by William F. DeGrado's group. This work provides a dramatic illustration that protein engineering is possible, and thus that objects of multi-nanometer scale can be designed and built to precise molecular specifications. Jay Ponder, of the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale, described systems for molecular modeling and for the computer-aided design of proteins. He reports that an algorithm developed in collaboration with Frederic Richards has been quite successful in generating sequences of hydrophobic amino acids which will successfully pack to form the core of a protein with a specified backbone geometry. In either case, molecular modeling can help distinguish between workable and unworkable proposals.