Electrical Control of Microtubule Translocation on Graphene

Motor protein systems such as a kinesin-microtubule complex play an important role in intracellular cargo transport by directly converting a chemical energy into a mechanical work. For exploiting their high energy efficiency, there have been considerable efforts to integrate them with various nanostructures to build nanoscale biodevices such as an advanced nano-transportation system. Herein, we demonstrated a successful motility assay of microtubules on a kinesin-functionalized graphene electrode which has a good transparency and conductivity. By applying a voltage bias onto the graphene electrode, we could spatially control the translocation of the microtubules. Our result clearly shows that graphene can be used not only as a good substrate for a motor-protein motility assay but also as a key component for a nano-mechanical system based on biomotors.