Mousumi Akter

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Verified

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• Doctor of Philosophy
• Postdoctoral Research Scientist at University of Michigan

ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by chemical precipitation method from zinc acetate dihydrate and NaOH using isopropanol as the reaction medium. The influence of an imidazolium-based hydrophilic ionic liquid (IL), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium methylsulfate, [EMIM][MeSO4] at different concenrations on the size and morpholgy of ZnO NPs was invest...

We regulate the persistency in motion of kinesin-driven microtubules (MTs) simply using a photoresponsive DNA (pDNA) and ultraviolet (UV)-visible light. The path persistence length of MTs, which is a measure of the persistency in their motion, increases and decreases upon illuminating the MTs with UV and visible light respectively. Moreover, pDNA i...

Cooperation is a strategy that has been adopted by groups of organisms to execute complex tasks more efficiently than single entities. Cooperation increases the robustness and flexibility of the working groups and permits sharing of the workload among individuals. However, the utilization of this strategy in artificial systems at the molecular leve...

The filamentous cytoskeletal protein microtubule, a polymer of α and β heterodimers of tubulin, plays major roles in intracellular transport as well as in vitro molecular actuation and transportation. Functionalization of tubulin dimers through covalent linkage facilitates utilization of microtubule in the nanobioengineering. Here we present a deta...

Creating artificial cells with a dynamic cytoskeleton, akin to those in living cells, is a major goal in bottom‐up synthetic biology. In this study, we demonstrate the in situ polymerization of microtubules encapsulated in giant polymer‐lipid hybrid vesicles (GHVs) composed of 1,2‐dioleoyl‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phosphocholine and an amphiphilic block copoly...

Synthetic cells offer a versatile platform for addressing biomedical and environmental challenges, due to their modular design and capability to mimic cellular processes such as biosensing, intercellular communication, and metabolism. Constructing synthetic cells capable of stimuli‐responsive secretion is vital for applications in targeted drug del...

The assembly of biological systems forms nonequilibrium patterns with different functionalities through molecular‐level communication via stepwise sequential interaction and activation. The mimicking of this molecular signaling offers extensive opportunities to design self‐assemblies of bioinspired synthetic nonequilibrium systems to develop molecu...

Synthetic cells offer a versatile platform for addressing biomedical and environmental challenges, due to their modular design and capability to mimic cellular processes such as biosensing, intercellular communication, and metabolism. Constructing synthetic cells capable of stimuli-responsive secretion is vital for applications in targeted drug del...

The swarming of self-propelled cytoskeletal filaments has emerged as a new aspect in the field of molecular machines or robotics, as it has overcome one of the major challenges of controlling the mutual interaction of a large number of individuals at a time. Recently, we reported on the photo-regulated swarming of kinesin-driven cytoskeletal microt...

Biomolecular motor-based micro-sized robots have recently created an innovation in the field of science and technology as molecular transporters. Groups of these tiny robots can work substantially better than individual ones in terms of the transported distance and number or size of cargo. Site-specific molecular delivery, the main feature of these...

Nanostructured ZnO with controllable morphology was prepared by a hydrothermal method in the presence of three different hydrophilic ionic liquids (ILs), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium methylsulfate, ([C 2 mim]CH 3 SO 4), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methylsulfate, ([C 4 mim]CH 3 SO 4) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulfate, ([C 2 mim]C 2 H 5 SO...

Biomolecular motor (microtubule (MT)-kinesin) based molecular swarm robots are important due to their applications in cooperative task achievements, while the structural details are still unknown. In this work, high-speed atomic force microscopy was used to observe the MT swarm ring structure at nanometer-level resolution. MTs were observed to pile...

We report the swarming of microtubules driven by the biomolecular motor kinesin and dissociation of microtubule swarms under UV and visible light irradiation, respectively. We introduced para tert-butyl-substituted azobenzene, a photoresponsive molecule, to the backbone of single strand DNA, which functions as a photoswitch. Due to the photoswitch,...

Filamentous microtubules, polymers of the heterodimeric protein tubulins play one of the major roles in the emergent nano-biotechnological devices. To develop the feature of those devices, it is important to understand the function of microtubule in in vitro, hence, the availability of purified αβ-tubulin is required. Additionally, fluorescently la...

Swarm robotics has been attracting much attention in recent years in the field of robotics. This chapter describes a methodology for the construction of molecular swarm robots through precise control of active self-assembly of microtubules (MTs). Detailed protocols are presented for the construction of molecular robots through conjugation of DNA to...

Fabrication of molecular devices using biomolecules through biomimetic approaches has witnessed a surge in interest in recent years. DNA a versatile programmable material offers an opportunity to realize complicated operations through the designing of various nanostructures such as DNA origami. Here we describe the methods to use DNA origami for th...

In vitro gliding assay of the filamentous protein microtubule (MT) on a kinesin motor protein coated surface has appeared as a classic platform for studying active matters. At high densities, the gliding MTs spontaneously align and self-organize into fascinating large-scale patterns. Application of mechanical stimuli e.g., stretching stimuli to the...

Polymer preprints, 70 th symposium on macromolecules

The recent progress in molecular machines has enabled the construction of microrobots, which can be defined as an integrated system equipping three elementary devices-actuator, processor and sensor at a molecular level. Recently, our group reported on the construction of a microrobot integrating a biomolecular motor system (microtubule (MT)-kinesin...

The establishment of molecular robot that can selectively load and unload cargoes in a highly efficient manner, is undoubtedly an ultimate scientific challenge. For ages, scientists are trying to mimic from nature to invent such molecular robots and utilize this system for the further advancements. In nature, swarming of living organisms is fascina...

The establishment of molecular robot that can selectively load and unload cargoes in a highly efficient manner, is undoubtedly an ultimate scientific challenge. For ages, scientists are trying to mimic from nature to invent such robots and utilize for the further advancements. Here, we demonstrate that a systematic construction of photoresponsive D...

ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by a chemical precipitation method from zinc acetate dihydrate andNaOH using isopropanol as the reaction medium. The influence of an imidazolium-based hydrophilic ionicliquid (IL), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium methylsulfate, [EMIM][MeSO4]atdifferent concentrations on thesize and morpholgy of ZnO NPs was investig...