© 1999 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Nanomedicine, Volume I: Basic Capabilities, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 1999

3.5.7.3 Tomographic Model

In the tomographic receptor model, the receptor engineer again starts with a known target molecule topography and designs a series of thin planar sections which, when stacked together in the correct order (using positionally-coded docking pins) and bonded, create a solid object containing the desired optimum binding cavity (Fig. 3.13). As in the mosaic model, point charges or dislocations in each planar segment can be used to manipulate cavity features and dimensions to precise tolerances. Unlike the mosaic model, a tomographic receptor can be reconfigured by partial disassembly and replacement of specific planar segments, each of which contributes only locally to the total receptor structure. Hybrid or modular artificial enzymes^651,692 and two-dimensional sheetlike hydrogen-bonded networks⁶⁹⁵ are crude analogs in current research.

Last updated on 7 February 2003