Improved manufacture of hybrid membranes with bionanopore adapters capable of self-luting

What is it about?

Rings made of plant virus protein and nucleic acids have been prepared to serve as extremely small pores, to be inserted into inorganic membranes with suitable holes prepared by a new ion beam technique. On the outer protein ring rim, biological peptide molecules can guide the deposition of silica from liquid precursors, which may result in a self-sealing process fixing the protein pores inside the membrane channels. The resulting hybrid structures offer new chances for filtration and molecule separation tasks, because the protein pores can be biotechnically modified to change e.g. their charge and size.

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