antioxidant nanoreactors/processors; self-assembly; vesicles; amphiphilic copolymers; enzymes
Zhang Xiaoyan, Lomora Mihai, Einfalt Tomaz, Meier Wolfgang, Klein Noreen, Schneider Dirk, Palivan Cornelia (2016), Active surfaces engineered by immobilizing protein-polymer nanoreactors for selectively detecting sugar alcohols, in
Biomaterials, 89, 79-88.
Garni Martina, Einfalt TomaŽ, Lomora Mihai, Car Anja, Meier Wolfgang, Palivan Cornelia G (2016), Artificial Organelles: Reactions inside Protein-Polymer Supramolecular Assemblies., in
Chimia, 70(6), 424-7.
Palivan Cornelia G, Goers Roland, Najer Adrian, Zhang Xiaoyan, Meier Wolfgang (2016), Bioinspired polymer vesicles and membranes for biological and medical applications, in
Chem. Soc. Rev., 45, 377-411.
Postupalenko Viktoriia, Einfalt Tomaz, Lomora Mihai, Dinu I. Adrian, Palivan G. Cornelia (2016), Bio-nanoreactors: from confined reaction spaces to artificial organelles, in Samahe Sadjadi (ed.), Elsevier, Elsevier, 341-371.
Lomora Mihai, Dinu Ionel Adrian, Itel Fabian, Rigo Serena, Spulber Mariana, Palivan Cornelia G (2015), Does Membrane Thickness Affect the Transport of Selective Ions Mediated by Ionophores in Synthetic Membranes?, in
Macromolecular rapid communications, na.
Fabian Itel, Adrian Najer, Cornelia G. Palivan, Wolfgang Meier (2015), Mobility of membrane proteins within synthetic polymer membranes, in
Nano Letters, 15(6), 3871-3878.
P. Richard, J. Duskey, S. Stolarov, M. Spulber, C.G. Palivan (2015), New concepts to fight oxidative stress: antioxidant compounds inside 3-D nano-assemblies, in
Expert Opinion Drug Delivery, 12(9), 1-19.
Gunkel-Grabole G, Sigg S, Lomora M, Lörcher S, Palivan C G., Meier W P (2015), Polymeric 3D nano-architectures for transport and delivery of therapeutically relevant biomacromolecules., in
Biomaterials science, 3(1), 25-40.
Lomora Mihai, Garni Martina, Itel Fabian, Tanner Pascal, Spulber Mariana, Palivan Cornelia G (2015), Polymersomes with engineered ion selective permeability as stimuli-responsive nanocompartments with preserved architecture., in
Biomaterials, 53, 406-14.
Lomora Mihai, Itel Fabian, Dinu Ionel Adrian, Palivan Cornelia G (2015), Selective ion-permeable membranes by insertion of biopores into polymersomes., in
Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP, 17(24), 15538-46.
Tanner Pascal, Balasubramanian Vimalkumar, Palivan Cornelia G. (2013), Aiding nature's organelles: Artificial peroxisomes play their role, in
Nano Letters, 13(6), 2875-2883.
Zhang Xiaoyan, Tanner Pascal, Graff Alexandra, Palivan Cornelia G., Meier Wolfgang (2012), Mimicking the cell membrane with block copolymer membranes, in
JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE PART A-POLYMER CHEMISTRY, 50(12), 2293-2318.
Dobrunz Dominik, Toma Adriana C, Tanner Pascal, Pfohl Thomas, Palivan Cornelia G (2012), Polymer nanoreactors with dual functionality: simultaneous detoxification of peroxynitrite and oxygen transport., in
Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids, 28(45), 15889-99.
Tanner Pascal, Ezhevskaya Maria, Nehring Rainer, Van Doorslaer Sabine, Meier Wolfgang, Palivan Cornelia (2012), Specific His6-tag attachment to metal-functionalized polymersomes relies on molecular recognition, in
Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 116(33), 10113-10124.
Larrañaga Aitor, Lomora Mihai, Sarasua Jose-Ramon, Palivan Cornelia, Pandit Abhay, Polymer capsules as micro-/nanoreactors for therapeutic applications: Current strategies to control membrane permeability, in
Progress in Materials Science, 1.
SUMMARYEfforts to understand the expression of nature’s intelligence and to mimic its structures and functions in the design of new materials and active assemblies have yielded powerful methods in use today in various domains that include chemistry, electronics, materials science and medicine. Of particular interest are polymer supramolecular structures in the form of particles, micelles, vesicles, and films that provide a variety of architectures to allow the insertion/encapsulation/attachment of biomolecules. In this project, we plan to combine physical chemistry, polymer science and enzymatic reactions in order to obtain a better understanding of the structural conformation of biomolecules - polymer supramolecular assemblies and to develop efficient antioxidant nanoreactors and processors. The necessity to develop an antioxidant platform on the nanoscale originates with the increasing evidence of the toxicity of reactive free radicals species generated by oxidative stress as involved in several severe pathological conditions, such as cancer, degenerative diseases, HIV, or viral infections, and recently associated with inorganic nanoparticles or quantum dots.The first objective involves the development of our antioxidant processor concept by designing a multifunctional processor on the nanoscale based on the co-encapsulation of three different enzymes types, allowing for the simultaneous detoxification of oxygen and nitrogen reactive species (O2-, H2O2, and ONNO-). In this regard we will first optimise the antioxidant processor that we previously introduced to detoxify reactive oxygen species, by encapsulating two enzymes that act in tandem inside the cavities of polymer vesicles. Another task will be to study the encapsulation of an enzyme in polymer vesicles to generate a nanoreactor to combat reactive nitrogen species. Together with the optimised two-enzyme processor it will serve to provide the input conditions for the design of a three-enzyme-containing processor. The design of a three-enzyme-containing processor will considerably increase the complexity in terms of processor generation, and reactions taking place inside the cavity of vesicles. As a backup project, we will replace the combination of two enzymes with a dual-enzyme mimic and then co-encapsulate it, together with the third enzyme, inside the polymer vesicles.To avoid tremendous synthetic and preparative effort in the combination of biomolecules and synthetic polymers, an essential approach is to characterise the interactions and structural conformations when controlled variations in the properties of the biomolecule/polymer system are induced by chemical conjugation, or attachment of fluorophores, and spin labels. The second objective of the project is to study in detail the combination of the polymer membrane with biological molecules by: i. insertion of biopores for permeabilization of the membrane, and ii. generation of membranes providing metal centres at their surface for protein binding via molecular recognition interactions. This part of the project represents a fundamental approach to the study of biomolecules that interact with polymer supramolecular assemblies, with respect to the insertion/binding and the related structural changes that occur to accommodate a synthetic material with biomolecules. This will allow us to predict how to choose the copolymer membrane to be combined in a rational design with biomolecules to further develop the platform of nanoreactors and processors in terms of efficacy and targeting approaches. Our overall aim is thus both to improve the basic molecular understanding of the structure and interaction role in combining biomolecules with polymer assemblies, and to design new nanoreactors/processors for further biological and technological applications.