title: Stimuli-Triggered Activity of Nanoreactors by Biomimetic Engineering Polymer Membranes.
abstract: The development of advanced stimuli-responsive systems for medicine, catalysis, or technology requires compartmentalized reaction spaces with triggered activity. Only very few stimuli-responsive systems preserve the compartment architecture, and none allows a triggered activity in situ. We present here a biomimetic strategy to molecular transmembrane transport by engineering synthetic membranes equipped with channel proteins so that they are stimuli-responsive. Nanoreactors with triggered activity were designed by simultaneously encapsulating an enzyme inside polymer compartments, and inserting protein "gates" in the membrane. The outer membrane protein F (OmpF) porin was chemically modified with a pH-responsive molecular cap to serve as "gate" producing pH-driven molecular flow through the membrane and control the in situ enzymatic activity. This strategy provides complex reaction spaces necessary in "smart" medicine and for biomimetic engineering of artificial cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 80 CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Tomaž
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Einfalt
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 80 CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.|Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zürich , CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goers
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 80 CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ionel Adrian
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Dinu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 80 CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Najer
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 80 CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spulber
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 80 CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ozana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Onaca-Fischer
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 80 CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Cornelia G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Palivan
mesh_terms: D040761:Biomimetic Materials / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D010539:Permeability / Q000187:drug effects; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D018272:Porins / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: C109237:OmpF protein; D011108:Polymers; D018272:Porins
keywords: Nanotechnology; confinement; membrane permeability; membrane protein; polymer chemistry; polymersomes