Electrical Conductance in Biological Molecules

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current understanding of electrical conductance in biological molecules, focusing on charge transfer in DNA and proteins, and discusses experimental findings, theories, and future research directions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of charge transport mechanisms in nucleic acids and proteins, highlighting recent experimental and theoretical advances.

Findings

Charge transfer in DNA and proteins has been experimentally characterized.

Various theories explain the mechanisms of biomolecular charge transport.

Practical recommendations for future research are proposed.

Abstract

Nucleic acids and proteins are not only biologically important polymers: They have recently been recognized as novel functional materials surpassing in many aspects the conventional ones. Although Herculean efforts have been undertaken to unravel fine functioning mechanisms of the biopolymers in question, there is still much more to be done. This particular paper presents the topic of biomolecular charge transport, with a particular focus on charge transfer/transport in DNA and protein molecules. Here the experimentally revealed details, as well as the presently available theories, of charge transfer/transport along these biopolymers are critically reviewed and analyzed. A summary of the active research in this field is also given, along with a number of practical recommendations.