Chemo-mechanically Modulated Biomolecule Catch and Release with Aptamer-functionalized Adaptively Reconfigurable Polymeric Systems

摘要

Living organisms’ ability to catch, transport, and release specific biomolecules has been fascinating to a lot of scientists. For example, kinesins and dyneins bound to microtubules can carry specific biomolecules and shuttle these cargoes along the microtubule network. Inspired by this, this work aims to develop an elegantly configured chemo-mechano-biochemically modulated polymeric material system which performs sequential, concerted “catch-transport-release” of target biomolecules from one fluid flow to another. To capture the cooperative processes of bimolecular signaling and transporting in a complex hierarchical system, we can use dynamically responsive “smart” polymeric materials that can respond to various chemical signals and generate efficient, fluid movements among disparate components within an “organism” through chemo-mechanical behaviors.