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A University of Arizona research team is on the verge of perfecting a method for using biological material to produce the electrical circuitry to create smaller, more efficient machines.

The UA's Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Team, known as NIRT, filed the patent May 4 for the technology, but the process could take up to five years to complete, said Patrick Jones, director of the University of Arizona Tech Transfer Office.

The technology involves a method for directing microtubule growth between electrodes and a metallization strategy to convert the biological material into electrical circuits, said James Hoying, assistant professor of biomedical engineering.

Professor of material sciences Pierre Deymier and Hoying lead the interdisciplinary team that includes researchers specializing in surface chemistry and pediatrics.

"I haven't worked in anything like this. With Pierre being a material sciences engineer and me being a biologist by training, coming together has been wonderful," Hoying said. "We're seeing how the other side works and also working in a project that neither of us can do alone."

The men expect their microtubule technology will someday replace traditional circuit systems.

Funding for this project has come from the UA, the National Science Foundation and the UA's Bio5 Institute.

According to Hoying and Deymier, no other research group in the world is dealing with the possible applications of microtubules in microelectronics.

Key to their work are proteins known as microtubules, which are the microscopic fibers cells that break apart chromosomes during cell division. The thin and hollow fibers allows microtubules to work as the organic link between microchips within miniature electrical devices.

The microtubules are anchored in one electrode by a substance known as a ligand, which attaches to the surface of the electrode. Ligands are the initial sites from which a microtubule grows. The different chemical make-up of these ligands forces them to grow to a receptive terminating point on a different electrode, Hoying said.

The direction they grow is determined by the polarity of the microtubules. Like a battery, there is a positive and a negative end to the microtubules. The connection is made when opposite ends attract and hook up on the ligand of a different electrode.

The length of the microtubule connections can be five to 10 times shorter than in inorganic circuits, and suggest the possibility of smaller machines and more efficient connections.

Once a connection is completed, a copper solution is injected into the hollow filament. The solution conducts electricity while the organic microtubule provides an insulating cover for the circuit.

Nanotechnology has become a buzzword in the world of science, technology and medicine. As a relatively new field, nanotechnology encompasses the workings of materials on an extremely small scale. The new science offers the possibility of faster, smaller and more efficient machines in the future.

Speculation abounds and the excitement in this field is at a healthy level, Hoying said. The only challenge now lies in producing a viable product.

Currently, the team has mastered growing the microtubules. The next step will be making a connection work between two electrodes. Hoying expects that in the next year the team can form a functional nano wire.

But the combining of biotechnology — an area that uses application of biological systems or materials in technological modification — and nanotechnology is only in its nascent stage, Jones said.

"At this particular stage, we are investing into the future," Jones said of the UA's interest in the NIRT. "How one works with semiconductor technology is going to be an interesting challenge."