Description du projet
Jeter les bases du domaine des machines supramoléculaires
De nouvelles architectures d’interrupteurs moléculaires hissent à des niveaux supérieurs les machines moléculaires artificielles inspirées de la nature qui copient les agents essentiels du mouvement dans les organismes vivants. Elles permettront aux scientifiques d’ajouter des possibilités imprévisibles à ces systèmes ainsi que de nouvelles fonctionnalités aux machines moléculaires artificielles. Il est encore toutefois nécessaire de compter sur une chaîne d’interactions moléculaires bien conçue pour traduire le mouvement au niveau moléculaire (généralement induit au niveau subnanométrique) en effets mesurables et utilisables aux niveaux micro et macro. Pour y parvenir, le projet MechanoTubes, financé par l’UE, tirera avantage des principes opérationnels des microtubules pour incorporer des photo-interrupteurs moléculaires dans les tubes supramoléculaires et permettre une croissance et un démontage contrôlés des tubes en utilisant la lumière comme source d’énergie. Ce projet jette les bases du domaine des machines supramoléculaires qui fonctionneront à l’échelle nanométrique et au-delà.
Objectif
Artificial molecular motors and switches have the potential to become a core part of nanotechnology. However, a wide gap in length scales still remains unaccounted for, between the operation of these molecules in solution, where their individual mechanical action is randomly dispersed in the Brownian storm, and on the other hand their action at the macroscopic level, e.g. in polymer networks and crystals.
This proposal is about bridging this gap, by developing chemo-mechanical transduction strategies that will allow dynamic molecules to perform a range of unprecedented tasks, e.g. by generating strong directional forces at the nanoscale, and through shape-shifting microscopic formations.
This project aims to harness the mechanically-purposeful motion of dynamic molecules as to generate measurable forces from the nanoscale, and ultimately establish operational principles for chemo-mechanical transduction in supramolecular systems.
In my wholly synthetic approach, I draw inspiration from the operational principles of microtubules. I will incorporate molecular photo-switches into supramolecular tubes, and enable the controlled growth and disassembly of the tubes by using light as the energy input. Thus, I will: (i) Synthesize stiff supramolecular tubes that grow actively under continuous illumination, and disassemble with a power stroke as soon as illumination stops; (ii) Measure, and harvest the forces generated by the tubes to manipulate individual nanoparticles with a sense of directionality; and (iii) Encapsulate the tubes into water droplets and vesicles, to yield shape-shifting, and eventually rudimentary splitting models for cells.
This project reaches beyond the state of the art in adaptive molecular nano-systems, by pioneering strategies to engineer and harness strain in supramolecular assemblies. It thus lays the foundations for machineries that are capable of manipulating matter at length scales that are also those at which the cytoskeleton operates.
Champ scientifique
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitution d’accueil
9712CP Groningen
Pays-Bas