Enzyme-assisted self-assembly under thermodynamic control

Williams, Richard and Smith, Andrew and Collins, Richard and Hodson, Nigel and Das, Apurba and Ulijn, Rein Vincent (2009) Enzyme-assisted self-assembly under thermodynamic control. Nature Nanotechnology, 4 (1). pp. 19-24. ISSN 1748-3387 (https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.378)

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Abstract

The production of functional molecular architectures through self-assembly is commonplace in biology, but despite advances1, 2, 3, it is still a major challenge to achieve similar complexity in the laboratory. Self-assembled structures that are reproducible and virtually defect free are of interest for applications in three-dimensional cell culture4, 5, templating6, biosensing7 and supramolecular electronics. Here, we report the use of reversible enzyme-catalysed reactions to drive self-assembly. In this approach, the self-assembly of aromatic short peptide derivatives9, 10 provides a driving force that enables a protease enzyme to produce building blocks in a reversible and spatially confined manner. We demonstrate that this system combines three features: (i) self-correction—fully reversible self-assembly under thermodynamic control; (ii) component-selection—the ability to amplify the most stable molecular self-assembly structures in dynamic combinatorial libraries11, 12, 13; and (iii) spatiotemporal confinement of nucleation and structure growth. Enzyme-assisted self-assembly therefore provides control in bottom-up fabrication of nanomaterials that could ultimately lead to functional nanostructures with enhanced complexities and fewer defects.

  • Item type:Article
    ID code:35643
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    1 January 2009
    Published
    21 December 2008
    Published Online
    Subjects:Science > Chemistry
    Department:Faculty of Science > Pure and Applied Chemistry
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:07 Nov 2011 14:40
    Last modified:08 Apr 2024 19:40
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/35643
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