Self-assembly of Nanoscopic Analogues of Lipoproteins

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Synthetic nanoscopic materials that are able to mimic the structure and functional aspects of biological transport systems such as lipoproteins and viruses are promising as targetable transport systems for low molecular weight drugs, recombinant proteins, and genes. In recent years, metal-directed self-assembly has been the subject of explosive development making possible the synthesis of discrete rianostructures with sizes and molecular weights comparable to proteins. This proposal is concerned with the synthesis of rationally designed molecular units programmed to self-assemble via dative coordination bonds into discrete polyhedral nanostructures. These ensembles will contain pendant amino acids or lipid groups that, upon self-organization of the molecular units, can cluster together to model the structure and transport function properties of lipoproteins. The long-term objective of this research is the development of these self-assembled polyhedral nanostructures into lipoprotein-like transport systems that may serve as new drug delivery vehicles of hydrophobic medicines. Our research design will also pave the way for the preparation of synthetic supramolecular assemblies that model the internal molecular environment of metallo-enzymes and from which new practical bioinspired catalytic systems may spawn.