Self-assembly of bioinspired and biologically functional materials
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ntroduction Self-assembly is a process by which small components can be built up into larger structures through controlled noncovalent interactions.1–3 An incredible range of materials can be fabricated from simple repeat units, as just four nucleic acid bases and 20 amino acids can generate the human genome and produce most of the proteins found in nature. As a fabrication technique, self-assembling systems are scalable and are able to generate complex hierarchical order. Utilizing biological motifs for organization has the advantage of only needing well-defined and widely used chemistries, which can easily interface with biological systems.4 These properties make self-assembled promising for therapeutic applications, since they can often be delivered noninvasively, and be responsive to local cues.5 While nature is able to assemble a range of components to imbue them with exceptional properties, these principles can be used to design a range of materials using wholly synthetic building blocks (Figure 1). Dynamic interactions between nucleic acids is foundational to the controlled expression of proteins in cells. The simplicity of the genetic code in both the number of bases and chemistry means that nucleic acid biopolymers have defined, well-understood properties in which multiple sets of noncovalent interactions can be designed to occur simultaneously under specific physiological conditions.3 Proteins have a broader range of functional groups and are organized in
nature from multimeric assemblies of a single protein6 to large clusters of different proteins in cell adhesion complexes.7 The dynamic organization of these macromolecules is dependent on a balance of forces, including hydrophobicity, hydrogen bonding, and charge interactions, which imparts them not only with specificity, but also responsiveness to stimuli, including pH, salt concentrations, or temperature.8 Beyond forming protein assemblies, organic biomolecules can organize inorganic components into composites, such as bone, teeth, and nacre, whose defined structure leads materials with exceptional properties being both stiff and tough.9 The diversity of properties seen in natural assemblies underscores how simple chemistries can induce hierarchical organization with a combination of properties that are not possible with the individual components.10 Tissues such as bone and tendon feature distinct order from nanoscale protein assemblies, through the mesoscale to the macroscale.11 Early bioinspired self-assembled systems typically utilized short nucleic acids or peptides sequences to generate homogenous assemblies.3,12 However, recent advances have expanded our ability to controllably synthesize materials in which assembled nanostructure form superstructures on larger length scales. These enables the creation of materials which can both signal neurons on the nanoscale while guiding axon growth on the micron scale,13 or making dynamic self-folding materials.14 By understanding the design principles found in biological
E. Thomas Pashuck, Lehigh Universit
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