Proteins already power the biological world—enzymes catalyze reactions, molecular motors transport cargo in cells, and ribosomes assemble life itself. Now, AI-driven protein engineering is giving us the tools to design and build synthetic proteins with custom mechanical properties, transforming them into programmable nanoscale actuators.

Precision assembly requires real-time feedback, and until recently, our ability to monitor nanoscale movements was too slow and too blurry. That’s changing thanks to next-gen ultra-sensitive sensors and nanoscale imaging techniques.

Even with programmable nano-arms and precise sensing, there’s one more challenge: coordination at scale. A single molecular machine is impressive, but thousands working in parallel unlocks true nanomanufacturing.

To make nanomechanical systems truly useful, they need to interface with real-world hardware—and that's where Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and microelectronics come in.