title: Molecular engineering of polymersome surface topology.
abstract: Biological systems exploit self-assembly to create complex structures whose arrangements are finely controlled from the molecular to mesoscopic level. We report an example of using fully synthetic systems that mimic two levels of self-assembly. We show the formation of vesicles using amphiphilic copolymers whose chemical nature is chosen to control both membrane formation and membrane-confined interactions. We report polymersomes with patterns that emerge by engineering interfacial tension within the polymersome surface. This allows the formation of domains whose topology is tailored by chemical synthesis, paving the avenue to complex supramolecular designs functionally similar to those found in viruses and trafficking vesicles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AJ London, UK.
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0512-5606
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Pérez
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AJ London, UK.
authors.forename: Lea
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Messager
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AJ London, UK.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gaitzsch
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AJ London, UK.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1727-7001
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AJ London, UK.
authors.forename: Ludovico
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4084-8562
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sutto
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AJ London, UK.
authors.forename: Francesco Luigi
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4831-5039
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Gervasio
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AJ London, UK.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Battaglia
mesh_terms: D032701:Biomimetics; D060846:Cell Engineering; D000067128:Extracellular Vesicles / Q000737:chemistry*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers
keywords: Controlled self-assembly; biomimetic structures; block copolymers; surface topology; vesicles