The emergence of supertransporting microtubule networks

Microtubules, as dynamic cytoskeletal polymers, have the remarkable ability to organize into diverse polarized architectures while serving as tracks for motor-driven transport. These properties make them a powerful toolkit for engineering synthetic active materials and nanotechnologies that enable highly precise nanoscale transport, with no parallel in nonliving systems. Here, we present the emergence of supertransporting microtubule networks; architectures that arise from the integration of branching microtubule nucleation, borrowed from spindle machinery, with the activity of cytoplasmic dynein and kinesin-1. These dense, adaptive networks exhibit emergent long-range polar nematic organization and thereby support high-throughput and robust motor-driven molecular transport. Our supertransporting microtubule networks surpass existing microtubule-based transport platforms and define a new class of cytoskeletal active matter capable of sustaining dynamics on the millimeter scale. Our results illustrate how biological design principles can be deconstructed to engineer novel active matter systems with exceptional properties. Such systems not only illuminate the principles of self-organized phase transitions in biology but also open the door to scalable on-chip nanotechnologies for targeted delivery and smart biomaterials.