Background

According to UNICEF and WHO, around 1.1 billion people are without access to potable drinking water. In the context of a rapidly growing global water gap due to rapid global population growth in middle- and low-income countries, desalination is one of the most promising approaches to supply new fresh water.

Desalination today only accounts for a small fraction of the world’ s potable water supply. This is because existing commercial techniques for desalination suffer from important drawbacks, most importantly large energy footprints and high capital costs. Despite the wide availability of seawater, desalination can only become a sustainable water supply option if transformative technologies are developed.

In this perspective, biohybrid membrane have shown growing interest as they can ideally combine the durability of solid-state membranes with the precise structure of biological membranes. Tremendous progress has been made regarding the modification of surface chemistry and incorporation of biological compounds inside synthetic pores. In particular, biohybrid membranes built from the insertion of biological water channels, in solid-state membranes have a great deal to offer over existing technologies for desalination, as they might help improve the functionality and sustainability of the technology and reduce the manufacturing cost.

Technology Overview

To positively impact the field and continue to push the research forward, we report here on the computational design of a distinctive class of biohybrid membrane with tunable size and geometry, built from the directed insertion of protein-incorporated lipid shell in silica pore, which could pave the way to the development of transformative water filtration devices.

in silico design complete
experimental collaboration agreed
no industrial collaborator contacted yet

Benefits

Biohybrid membrane can ideally combine the durability of solid-state membranes with the precise structure of biological membranes, which is crucial for the development of sustainable wafer-scale parallel devices fitted with high biological specificity (portable water desalination devices) at affordable costs

Applications

Original application is for water desalination. The methodology could be applicable to a large range of biomedical and environmental applications, where targeting and enhanced permeation of small particles must be controlled (drug design, environmental remediation)

The concept can be applied to any applications that will require protein encapsulation.

Opportunity

Industrial advisory team and partnership for future funding applications and experimental development.

Biohybrid Membrane for Desalination

Seeking