IMX Seminar Series - Supramolecular Polymers

Materials Talking to Cells
Wouldn't it be great if we could design soft materials that actively integrate into cells or tissues and stimulate cellular responses? Can we imagine materials that instruct cells to grow, proliferate or induce apoptosis? What would such materials look like and would we be able to learn the language of cells and translate it into communicating materials? In my talk, I will first discuss how to design structurally precise polymeric nanostructures using the DNA origami technique. I will then present the identification of bioactive peptide nanostructures that stimulate the growth of neuronal cells without growth factors or the concentration of viruses at the cell membrane, which is of interest for applications in regenerative medicine and gene therapy. Controlled formation of peptide nanostructures in the cytoplasm by chemical cascade reactions opens new avenues as metabolic inhibitors for cancer therapy.
Figure taken from W.J. Parak, T. Weil, P.S. Weiss, ACS Nano 2021, 15, 10, 15397-15401
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2. Zhou, Z. et al. Polymer Chemistry in Living Cells. Accounts of Chemical Research 2022, 55 (20) 2998-3009.
3. Winterwerber, P. et al. Multi-Wavelength Photopolymerization of Stable Poly(Catecholamines)-DNA Origami Nanostructures. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2022, 61 (8), e202111226.
4. Sieste, S. et al. Supramolecular Peptide Nanofibrils with Optimized Sequences and Molecular Structures for Efficient Retroviral Transduction. Advanced Functional Materials 2021 31 2009382.
5. Pieszka, M. et al. Controlled Supramolecular Assembly inside Living Cells by Sequential Multi-staged Chemical Reactions. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2020 142 (37) 15780–15789.
6. Zhou, Z. et al. In Situ Assembly of Platinum (II)-Metallopeptide Nanostructures Disrupts Energy Homeostasis and Cellular Metabolism. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2022, 144 (27) 12219-12228.