Project Overview

This research explores the possibility of molecular communication as a solution for communication between nanomachines. Nanomachines are artificial or biological nano-scale devices that perform simple computation, sensing, or actuation. Molecular communication provides a mechanism for nanomachines to communicate over a short distance (adjacent nanomachines to tens of micrometers) using molecules as a communication carrier. Current research focuses on understanding biological nanomachines and also on artificially creating counterparts of biological nanomachines. No current research focuses on communication aspects of nanomachines. Communicating nano machines can spur the creation of entirely new applications such as a nano-scale distributed computing system or a nano-scale sensing system. The class of molecular communication systems considered in this research consists of sender nanomachines, receiver nanomachines, carrier molecules, and the environment that these operate in. Senders and receivers include biological (such as cells) and biologically derived (such as molecular motors or sensors taken from biological systems) nanomachines that are capable of emitting and capturing carrier molecules (such as proteins, ions, or DNA). The environment is the aqueous solution that is typically found within and between cells.