AM-SURE Summer Lecture Series

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Rotary molecular motors driven by transmembrane ionic currents

Speaker: Charles S. Peskin, Courant Institute

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 1314

Date: Friday, July 14, 2023, 1 p.m.

Synopsis:

There are two rotary motors in biology, ATP synthase and the bacterial
flagellar motor.  Both are driven by transmembrane ionic currents.  
We consider an idealized model of such a motor, essentially an
electrostatic turbine.  The equations of the model are solved
explicitly to determine the electromechanical properties of the motor,
which turn out to obey the Onsager reciprocal relations of
non-equilibrium thermodynamics.  A design problem is formulated and
solved, and the optimal efficiency of the motor is evaluated.

Slides are available online:  
https://math.nyu.edu/~peskin/rotary_motor_ubc_talk.pdf