A molecular machine based on a phosphate group can walk from one position on a molecule to another. It is the first example of a synthetic, small-molecule system that converts chemical fuel into directed motion without any intervention.
Nature routinely walks molecules from one place to another. For example, myosin, a motor protein found in muscles, hydrolyses ATP to slide along a filament during muscle contraction. Chemists have synthesised artificial systems that mimic this molecular walking, but few examples work using small molecules.
Researchers based at the University of Ulm, Germany, have now developed a synthetic system that walks phosphate groups along the backbone of sugar-like compounds.
Ever since my PhD, I was dreaming of creating 𝗮 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸𝘀🚶 in the same way as Nature’s motor proteins.
In @natchem.nature.com, we report an autonomous molecular walker that works in this way. Fuel in, two-legged non-equilibrium motion out.
www.nature.com/articles/s41…
#Chemsky— Delius Lab (@mvdelius.bsky.social) September 21, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Reacting a phosphate attached to glycerol with a carbodiimide catalyses the formation of a five-membered ring. Hydrolysis then opens the ring by breaking the initial phosphorus–oxygen bond, which causes the phosphate to migrate along the backbone.
The team’s method was inspired by the hydrolysis of RNA. Here, the free hydroxy group on the RNA backbone reacts with the linking phosphate group, forming a five-membered intermediate, before kicking out the rest of the strand.
Experiments by the team revealed that adding the carbodiimide speeds up the phosphate migration along the glycerol backbone from several weeks to minutes. This method also worked to alter the position of phosphate in a derivative of myo-inositol – a glucose-like molecule that plays a role in many biological processes.
Max von Delius, who led the work, said on BlueSky that their method could be a way to make biologically active phosphate compounds that would be hard to synthesise otherwise.
