Swimming vesicle driven by artificial flagella

在有生命的细胞系统中，为了推动实体，通过介质提供的化学能利用各种类型的化学引擎转化为机械能。在这项研究中，我们从以下两个角度研究了化学发动机原型的机制：1)化学刺激触发管状囊泡的螺旋运动，2)化学刺激触发泡囊表面能的不对称。对于前一种机制，我们成功地复制了脂肪酸小泡的螺旋运动，对于后一种机制，我们发现了所谓的小泡的化学渗透(趋化)，其中中性小泡游向化学刺激的源头。

In the living cellular systems, in order to propel the entities the chemical energy supplied through the medium is transformed to the mechanical energy using a various types of chemical engines. In this research we have investigated the mechanisms of prototypes of the chemical engines from the following two points of view; 1) screw motion of tubular vesicle triggered by chemical stimuli, and 2) asymmetry of the surface energy of vesicle triggered by chemical stimuli. For the former mechanism, we succeeded to reproduce the screw motion of fatty acid vesicles and for the latter mechanism, we found so-called chemophoresis (chemotaxis) of vesicles where neutral vesicles swim toward the source of the chemical stimulus.