Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications

Molecular, biological and multi-scale communications encompass the use of chemical and biological entities to transmit information across distances ranging from the nanoscale to the macroscale. At the molecular level, information is encoded into the type, concentration or timing of messenger molecules such as DNA fragments, ions or proteins. These messages propagate through biological media by diffusion, active transport or fluid flow and are detected by specialised receptors or biosensors. Communication processes in living systems include quorum sensing among bacterial communities, hormone signalling in multicellular organisms and intracellular transport along cytoskeletal tracks. Synthetic approaches harness microfluidic networks, genetic circuits and nanomaterial interfaces to create bio-compatible transceivers capable of processing, relaying and interpreting chemical signals without electronic intermediaries. Multi-scale integration unites molecular channels with conventional electronic or photonic networks, enabling applications from targeted drug delivery and in vivo diagnostics to environmental monitoring and biohybrid internet-of-things architectures. Key challenges include the control of channel variability, interference between successive molecular pulses, limited data rates and the seamless coupling of chemical logic with digital computation across scales.

Research from Nature Portfolio

A liquid-based microfluidic platform has been engineered to perform real-time chemical signal processing entirely in the molecular domain. By designing specific reaction networks and tailoring microchannel geometries, the system is able to modulate concentration-encoded bits of information, to apply threshold detection, amplification and demodulation steps, and to transmit text over centimetre-scale distances. Encoding is achieved with varying concentrations of a simple reagent, demonstrating reliable molecular communication with optimised data rate and minimal error without electronic signal conversion.

In parallel, a nanoscale receiver built on a graphene field-effect transistor biosensor has been integrated within a custom microfluidic testbed to validate molecular communications at the micro-to-nano interface. Information is encoded in pulses of single-stranded DNA molecules and decoded via the electrical response of the graphene gate. This represents the first fully characterised micro/nanoscale molecular communication system with a practical biosensing receiver and empirical data that bridge theoretical models with real-world bio-nano applications.

Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in molecular, biological, and multi-scale communications across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Molecular Communication: Use of molecules as carriers of information between biosynthetic or engineered devices.

Nanonetwork: A network of nanoscale devices that exchange data via molecular or other nanoscale channels.

Microfluidic Platform: A miniaturised fluidic system that controls and manipulates small volumes of liquids for processing chemical signals.

Field-Effect Transistor Biosensor: A device that converts biochemical interactions at its gate into electrical signals via a semiconductor channel.

Threshold Detection: A signal processing operation that distinguishes high-concentration states from low-concentration states in molecular signalling.

Quorum Sensing: Cell-to-cell communication mechanism in bacterial communities mediated by concentration of secreted signalling molecules.

Internet of Bio-Nano Things: Integrated network combining biological, molecular and conventional electronic devices for information exchange.

References

1. Real-time signal processing via chemical reactions for a microfluidic molecular communication system. Nature Communications (2023).
2. Fabrication and microfluidic analysis of graphene-based molecular communication receiver for Internet of Nano Things (IoNT). Scientific Reports (2021).
3. Tabletop Molecular Communication: Text Messages through Chemical Signals. PLOS ONE (2013).
4. A Survey of Molecular Communication in Cell Biology: Establishing a New Hierarchy for Interdisciplinary Applications. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials (2021).
5. PANACEA: An Internet of Bio-NanoThings Application for Early Detection and Mitigation of Infectious Diseases. IEEE Access (2020).