Development of polyoxometalates as building blocks for supramolecular assemblies of biomolecules

Supramolecular chemistry targeting biomolecules is a novel field that aims at understanding biomolecular interactions on the one hand, and on developing novel functional biomaterials on the other. In order to achieve controlled assembly of biomolecules such as DNA or proteins, supramolecular approaches using various synthetic host molecules can be employed to induce their dimerization, oligomerization or polymerization. The main objective of this project is to develop methodologies that will allow polyoxometalates (POMs) to be employed as versatile and tunable building blocks for creating new hybrid supramolecular assemblies based on biomolecules. Considering that this is very scarcely explored area of research, it will require a careful design of hybrid POM structure, and a deep understanding of the relations between the POM nature, reaction conditions, and the assembled POM/biomolecule hybrids in order to achieve our final goal.

Keywords:supramolecular chemistry, nanostructures, biomolecules, polyoxometalates, hybrids

Disciplines:(Bio)molecular modelling and design