Nano Valve - A Switchable Molecular Trap

UCLA chemists have created a nano valve that can be opened and closed at will to trap and release molecules. The discovery was federally funded by the National Science Foundation. "This paper demonstrates unequivocally that the machine works," said Jeffrey I. Zink, a UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry, a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, and a member of the research team. "With the nano valve, we can trap and release molecules on demand. We are able to control molecules at the nano scale. "A nano valve potentially could be used as a drug delivery system," Zink said. "The valve is like a mechanical system that we can control like a water faucet," said UCLA graduate student Thoi Nguyen, lead author on the paper. "Trapping the molecule inside and shutting the valve tightly was a challenge." See more here or read the manuscript at PNAS.