Stoney's British Pub
3007 Concord Pike
Wilmington, DE
7:30pm
Daniel A. HammerUniversity of Pennsylvania
“Enzymes are Catalysts That Can Make Particles Move”
Catalysts are materials that make reactions go faster, and are neither created or destroyed. The best everyday example of a catalyst is the metal in your catalytic converter. Biology and life itself depend on a whole host of catalysts which make reactions go faster. Surprisingly, when enzymes convert substrates to products, they generate little forces. However, by combining many enzymes, one can generate big forces and actually move particles in solution. We show how we can use microfluidic assembly to make specialized capsules the size of biological cells, and move them in solution using urea, a waste product found in urine. We discuss future possibilities for making particles move around with many different enzymes.