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Incorporation Of The Actin-Myosin Biomolecular Motor System Into A Microfluidic Device, Rebecca Marie Ragland

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Recently, the field of bionanotechnology has sought to develop a device containing a biomolecular motor nano-cargo transport system. Among many applications, a device of this sort could be used to sort, purify, or detect specific molecules. In this work, an attempt was made to incorporate the actin-myosin biomolecular motor system into a microfluidic device constructed out of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and glass. Methods for cleaning and functionalizing the glass surface of the device were optimized. After performing actin-myosin motility assays in a variety of PDMS/glass devices, it was determined that the oxygen permeability of PDMS limited the quality of motility that …