A system that involves its components/organisms spontaneously assembling themselves together to form complex structures where the whole is greater than the sum
Certain molecules and proteins can self-assemble
Self-assembly is cost-effective and environmentally sustainable
Applications
- Nanostructure manufacturing
- Therapeutics
- Self-replicating machines
- Gene Therapy
The Asian corn borer moth caterpillar has cuticles that harness self-assembling abilities. NTU, Singapore has used these properties to create nanosized capsules for drug and mRNA delivery
The head cuticle of the caterpillar contains chains of amino acids called peptides → self-assembly properties
flowchart TD
A["Peptide"] --> B["Sequence A"]
A["Peptide"] --> C["Sequence A"]
A["Peptide"] --> D["Sequence A"]
Peptides with three or more repeating sequences and with each sequence containing 5 or more amino acids are screened. This property is crucial to self-assembly — interactions between repeating components. 3 such peptides were found Also, self-assembly happens due to chemical concentration gradients
Methodology
flowchart LR
A["Synthesize peptides from natural"] --> B["Add acetone to syn.peptides"]
- Upon adding acetone, the peptides formed droplets
- Acetone diffused into droplets and water diffused out of the droplets → concentration gradient created → peptide self-assembly triggered
- The peptides self-assemble into sheet-like structures called beta sheets
- The beta sheets form spherical hollow nanocapsules Fine-tune nanocapsule size by adjusting ratio of peptides and isophorone diisocyanate