Objective
Supramolecular chemistry and nanofabrication methods provide excellent prospect to construct reversible dynamic biological nanoplatforms employed for supramolecular cell manipulation (SUMOMAN) experiments. Making use of supramolecular chemistry is a rewarding task in developing functional materials and devices. Knowing the limitations involved in ordering proteins at different length scales will surely hasten the development of future applications, supramolecular nanobiology being the most prominent. The construction of synthetic supramolecular assemblies of proteins provides an excellent tool to fabricate organized bioactive components in the sub-micron regime at surfaces. Supramolecular nanobiology narrows the gap between chemical biology and bionanotechnology. The latter devises ways to construct molecular devices using biomacromolecules and it attempts to build molecular machines utilizing concepts seen in nature. In chemical biology new synthesis methods and strategies are developed and employed for the synthesis of compounds which are used as probes for the study of biological phenomena. Steadily improved synthetic procedures for site-specific modification of proteins have gained more control over structure and function of the proteins. However, applications of protein chips remain hampered by orientational and conformational aspects at the surface.
With the development of supramolecular bioactive nano-platforms on surfaces serving as a reversible dynamic interface to cells, the goal to study and manipulate cellular processes will come closer.
An innovative construction process of biological nanoarrays is proposed to study important fundamental aspects of cell biology. When such structured surfaces display a biological interface with nm resolution, a lengthscale inherently more relevant to biorecognition than microlengthscales, the communication through biomolecules with cellular receptors can be modulated with unprecedented spatial and temporal specificity.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
ERC-2010-StG_20091028
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Funding Scheme
ERC-SG - ERC Starting GrantHost institution
7522 NB Enschede
Netherlands