Scaling-up molecular logic to meso-systems via self-assembly

Abstract Due to the small size and biocompatibility of molecules, molecular logic-based computation is a gateway to the informational basis of life processes. Logic-based computation operates widely with discrete molecules of up to nanometric sizes. The contribution of molecule-based bulk materials...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ze-Qing Chen, Brian Daly, Chao-Yi Yao, Hannah S. N. Crory, Yikai Xu, Ziwei Ye, H. Q. Nimal Gunaratne, Ayumi Kimura, Seiichi Uchiyama, Steven E. J. Bell, Eric V. Anslyn, A. Prasanna de Silva
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-03-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58379-0
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Summary:Abstract Due to the small size and biocompatibility of molecules, molecular logic-based computation is a gateway to the informational basis of life processes. Logic-based computation operates widely with discrete molecules of up to nanometric sizes. The contribution of molecule-based bulk materials of milli/centimetric size to the field has begun in more recent years. However, artificial molecule-based meso-scale systems which intrinsically perform logic operations are very rare. Here, we show that self-assembled systems consisting of cyclophane octacarboxylates and a cationic surfactant can perform such functions, where a membrane itself behaves as a Reset-Set Flip-Flop which is integrated with 7 more logic elements. Now that molecular logic-based computation operates across a wide range of contiguous size-scales, the way opens for its general use in information processing aspects of biology and synthetic biology.
ISSN:2041-1723