Biomolecular Activity Switch: An Application of Metallic Nanoparticle Plasmon Resonance and Femtosecond Pulsed Lasers

With an increased effort within the engineering community to design molecular machines, it has become clear that a specific, external control method is required. Here we propose a simple mechanism for a molecular switch involving conjugating a molecule within the machinery to a gold nanorod. Then actuate that machinery’s active state by affecting a change in the conjugated molecule. We demonstrate the feasibility of the method using a fluorescent probe, and we report on progress we have made toward demonstrating it with a protein.