When Humans Make a Simplified Imitation of a Cell Machine, It's Called Design

Meet Rocker, the invention of an international team of scientists, including Gevorg Grigoryan at Dartmouth (pictured above). It's just a bundle of alpha-coils that sticks through a cell membrane. It can let some ions pass in, and others pass out. That simple function took years of work, and will require years more; it's just a stepping-stone toward rational design of cellular machines. Science published the achievement of a "de novo design" of a membrane channel that can transport zinc ions:...