title: Combining polymers with the functionality of proteins: new concepts for atom transfer radical polymerization, nanoreactors and damage self-reporting materials.
abstract: Proteins are macromolecules with a great diversity of functions. By combining these biomolecules with polymers, exciting opportunities for new concepts in polymer sciences arise. This highlight exemplifies the aforementioned with current research results of our group. We review our discovery that the proteins horseradish peroxidase and hemoglobin possess ATRPase activity, i.e. they catalyze atom transfer radical polymerizations. Moreover, a permeabilization method for polymersomes is presented, where the photo-reaction of an α-hydroxyalkylphenone with block copolymer vesicles yields enzyme-containing nanoreactors. A further intriguing possibility to obtain functional nanoreactors is to enclose a polymerization catalyst into the thermosome, a protein cage from the family of chaperonins. Last but not least, fluorescent proteins are discussed as mechanoresponsive molecular sensors that report microdamages within fiber-reinforced composite materials.
authors.affiliation: Adolphe Merkle Institute, University of Fribourg, Route de l'ancienne Papeterie CP 209, CH-1723 Marly 1, Switzerland; Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 80, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland. nico.bruns@unifr.ch.
authors.forename: Nico
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bruns
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 80, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lörcher
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 80, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Makyła
authors.affiliation: Adolphe Merkle Institute, University of Fribourg, Route de l'ancienne Papeterie CP 209, CH-1723 Marly 1, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pollarda
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 80, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Kasper
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Renggli
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 80, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spulber
mesh_terms: D049329:Nanostructures; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers; D011506:Proteins