The most advanced engines are not found in airplanes, cars or other machines - they are found in nature. Inside our cells, tiny protein motors power everything from cell division to muscle movement with an efficiency and precision that has fascinated researchers for decades and inspired long-standing efforts to replicate them. Now, scientists have taken an important first step.
An international research team led by Lund University and the University of New South Wales has created an artificial protein motor that can be controlled to take directed steps along a DNA track - a long-standing goal in synthetic biology.
Nature’s protein motors carry out some of the most sophisticated mechanical tasks in the body with great precision and efficiency. Understanding and recreating how these biological motors achieve their remarkable performance has therefore been a major scientific challenge.
The new findings, published in Nature Nanotechnology , show that it is possible to build artificial protein motors using the same building blocks as biological ones.
“Just as the steam engine laid the foundation for today’s mechanical engines, this breakthrough could mark the starting point for a deeper understanding of biology’s own motors,” says Heiner Linke, professor of nanophysics at Lund University and lead author of the study.
A molecular walk along DNA
The protein motor, named Tumbleweed, moves by alternating between three “feet” that bind to specific DNA sequences. By changing the surrounding chemical environment, the researchers can control both when the motor takes a step and the direction in which it moves.
“With Tumbleweed, we are gaining insight into the fundamental principles governing biological protein motors and how we may eventually come closer to matching nature’s performance,” says Heiner Linke.
Nature’s protein motors perform some of life’s most advanced mechanical tasks. Linke explains that the motor protein myosin converts chemical energy into muscle force and plays an essential role in cell division, while kinesin transports signalling molecules within cells.
“Proteins are far more complex than other molecular building blocks and therefore offer much greater possibilities. But that same complexity also makes them more challenging to work with,” he says.
From learning to walk to running a marathon
The ability to design entirely new proteins has advanced rapidly in recent years, but most efforts have focused on creating individual, static structures. With Tumbleweed, the researchers demonstrate that it is possible to create dynamic, moving structures that can be externally controlled.
For the researchers, Tumbleweed is only the beginning. Their next goal is to develop artificial proteins that no longer require external control but can “walk” independently using chemical fuel.
Linke compares the progress to a child learning to walk:
“Right now, we have a one-year-old who can take a few steps while holding someone’s hand. The next stage is learning to walk independently. After that, we can start thinking about athletics, marathons and the Olympics,” he concludes.
FACTS
The field was recognized with Nobel Prizes in 2016 and 2024
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to researchers who developed molecular machines and motors - molecules capable of converting energy from light or fuel into motion. These inventions were inspired by molecular motors found in living cells, where they perform essential biological functions.
“Considering that biological motors are mobile molecules constantly buffeted by large random motions from surrounding molecules, it is astonishing how precisely and energy-efficiently they operate,” says Heiner Linke.
Understanding how this is possible was one of the central questions behind the 2016 Nobel Prize.
“The Nobel laureates worked with small synthetic molecules, while other researchers have successfully used DNA. Proteins are more difficult to work with, but they offer greater potential for scaling up and refinement. We also suspect there is a reason evolution selected proteins as life’s primary building blocks,” says Linke.
The next major advance came in 2024, when the Nobel Prize was awarded to researchers who used computers and artificial intelligence to predict and design entirely new proteins.
“Most of these new proteins are designed to have a single, well-defined structure and function. Creating dynamic proteins capable of performing movements is widely seen as the next great challenge,” says Linke.
Nature Nanotechnology
Clocked stepping of an artificial protein walker along a DNA track
6-Jul-2026