Researchers study motions of self-organising nanostructures

In the body, these cilia act to clear microscopic debris from the lungs and determine the correct location of organs during development. Their beating motions are synchronised to produce metachronal waves.

Due to the importance of ciliary functions for health, there is great interest in understanding the mechanism that controls the cilias’ beating patterns. But learning exactly how cilia movement is coordinated has been challenging: each cilium contains more than 600 different proteins.

‘We’ve shown that there is a new approach toward studying the beating,’ said project lead Prof Zvonimir Dogic of Brandeis University. ‘Instead of deconstructing the fully functioning structure, we can start building complexity from the ground up.’

The experimental system was comprised of three main components: microtubule filaments — tiny hollow cylinders found in both animal and plant cells; motor proteins called kinesin, which consume chemical fuel to move along microtubules; and a bundling agent that induces assembly of filaments into bundles