Publication highlights

Natural ion channels of biology allow cells to communicate, transfer nerve impulses, trigger sensations, and cellular processes. Biology has a variety of highly effective channels, but creating new, orthogonal systems is challenging. Researchers at the Crick have designed a system able to span a lipid bilayer, with a single internal channel, which allows the passage of certain anions and cations. They can control its activity using three biorthogonal handles - light, pH, and presence of a 'guest' molecule, which blocks the channel. This allows them to formulate a molecular logic gate, achieving a simple analogy of the complex functions of biological transmembrane proteins.

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, King’s College London and the University of Fribourg have developed polymer water channels, similar to commonly used plastics, that can draw salt out of water, inspired by the body’s own water filtering system. If their innovation could be scaled up and produced industrially, this could help to filter seawater to create drinking water. The new channels mimicked aquaporins, proteins that rapidly transport water across cell membranes while excluding salt, and were organised into a helix structure called polymers or into cyclic structures called macrocycles. The pores inside the two types of channels were filled with a chemical mixture of fluorine and molecules called hydrocarbons, which together create a greasy layer. Through a series of experiments, the team confirmed that the channels actively transported water across a membrane and excluded salt.