Researchers have developed a new type of ion channel based on  short carbon nanotubes that can be integrated into live cells and bilayer membranes to create tiny pores that transport DNA, small ions, protons and water throughout the human body.

Called "porins," the carbon nanotubes placed on the surface of the cell will significant affect the future of bioengineering applications and healthcare. The nanotubes are sheets of graphene rolled up to form hollow tubes.

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The nanotube porins could eventually be used as a foundation for novel biosensors and DNA sequencing applications. They can also be used as components of man-made cells and to deliver medication throughout the human body.

Scientists have long been interested in creating synthetic analogs of membrane channels that replicate the extreme selectivity and high efficiency of transport molecules and ions generally found in natural systems. Previous efforts, however, were held back by issues regarding synthetics that have never mimicked the abilities of biological proteins.

Carbon nanotubes can home in on an exact region to treat it without collateral damage to surrounding organs. They work unlike pills that are absorbed and then distributed throughout the body.

"Many good and efficient drugs that treat diseases of one organ are quite toxic to another," said Aleksandr Noy, an LLNL biophysicist who led the study and is the senior author on the paper. "This is why delivery to a particular part of the body and only releasing it there is much better."

Researchers led by a team from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California made this discovery.

TagsCarbon nanotubes, Graphene, Nanotubes, Biology, nanotube porin, nanotechnology, Cells