Ports will provide a completed report or research paper summarising the effect of large surface areas on motor activity, including the effect of working with materials other than silicon, or with surfaces treated as suggested by the above report on passivation.  Ports, TuDelft and NPLML will provide a joint report describing a suitable system for working with a DNA-based molecular motor in an etched channel or well.  The report will compare a variety of enzymes in such a system and a number of different surfaces or functionalised surfaces.

Outcomes:

This deliverable was originally meant to be completed during 2004, however, the rapid advance of the project meant that it was both possible and essential, that the assays be carried out earlier than planned.  Therefore, a rapid ATPase assay was tried and tested for the EcoR124I R-M system and then used to determine the limits of sensitivity of the assay.  Having determined the sensitivity was valid to picomolar levels, small volume assays were performed, on silicon wafers, at the limits of sensitivity of the assay.  Interestingly, the ATPase activity was higher on the silicon surface than on plastic surfaces, such as used in standard Eppendorf Tubes.  Therefore, we now know that we can develop devices, using the EcoR124I molecular motor, on glass, or, silicon surfaces.