Polymeric vesicles with topologically controlled functionalities

我们在这里提出了一个受自然启发的“自下而上”设计的例子，它可以基于与生物结构相同的长期/研究原理，在分子水平上为工程结构提供突出的优势。我们使用被称为共聚物的合成材料，它使我们能够设计出数百纳米大小的非常坚固的结构（比人类头发小1000倍）。共聚物形成的这些结构中最简单的是囊泡。这是一种由半透膜包围的水核组成的球形聚集体。这些纳米球已经被用于包裹药物和其他分子。然后这些药物被送到身体的特定部位，以尽量减少药物的副作用。在这里，我们希望通过研究产生具有补丁表面的囊泡的可能性来进一步扩大分子水平的控制。这些补丁将允许特定功能的本地化。特别是，我们提出了两种不同的直接应用：具有控制孔隙度的囊泡和自运动囊泡。在前者中，贴片将允许控制降解和形成稳定的孔隙进入囊泡膜。在后者中，我们将生成具有不对称官能团分布的囊泡。这些将随后用于连接分子马达。这将是设计自推进纳米粒子的第一次尝试。

We present here an example of nature-inspired 'bottom-up' design that can offer outstanding advantages for engineering structures at a molecular level based on the same long/studied principles of biological structures. We use synthetic materials know as copolymers that have allowed us the design of very robust structures with sizes of hundreds of nanometers (1000 times smaller than human hair). The simplest among these structures formed by copolymers is the vesicle. This is spherical aggregate made of a water core surrounded by a semi-permeable membrane. These nano-spheres have already been used for encapsulating drugs and other molecules. These are then delivered to specific parts of the body so as to minimize drug side-effects. Here we want to expand further the molecular level control by studying the possibility of generating vesicles with patched surfaces. These patches will allow the localization of specific functionalities. Particularly, we present two different immediate applications: vesicles with controlled porosity and self-motile vesicles. In the former, the patches will allow the controlled degradation and formation of stable pores into the vesicles membranes. In the latter, we will generate vesicles with an asymmetric distribution of functional groups. These will subsequently used for attaching molecular motors. This will be the first attempt for designing self-propelled nano-particles.