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Supramolecular self-assemblies originating from small amphiphilic molecules have emerged with huge promise for task specific applications. Vesicles, micelles, low molecular weight gels are beautiful manifestations of supramolecular self-assemblies that are finding notable importance in diversified domain including opto-electronic devices, molecular recognition, cellular transporter, tissue engineering scaffold and so on. In the race of designing superior soft nanocomposites, we have developed trimesic acid based mono-layered vesicular aggregates with the ability to cellular internalization of model drug.1 On this course, we explored the route of forming hierarchical self-assemblies through designing of stimuli responsive amphiphiles. Phenylboronic acid tailored pyrene based gel was developed for fluoremetric sensing of minute amount of glucose at physiological pH and glucose triggered release of insulin for treating hyperglycaemic patients.2 Supramolecular gels often suffer from poor mechanical strength, which limits its applications. Hence, it is highly important to modulate the mechanical and physicochemical properties of supramolecular aggregates. To this end, exogenous carbon nanomaterials were specifically amalgamated within the physical gels depending on the molecular structure of amphiphiles.3,4 This complementary blend between gels and carbon nanomaterias can be achieved by superior dispersions of later with functional amphiphiles. To this end, amino acid based polyethylene glycol (PEG) containing amphiphiles were designed for effective dispersion of single walled carbon nanotube which was successfully employed in internalization of fluorophore-tagged proteins into mammalian cells.5 Also incorporation of biotin into the architecture of the dispersing agent aided a multifaceted delivery vehicle having target specificity towards cancer cells.6 This resulted in selective killing of cancer cells compared to that of normal cells. The significance of functional supramolecular aggregates and hybrid soft-nanocomposites with its potential in biomedicine will be presented in the seminar lecture.
References:
1. S. Dinda, M.Ghosh, P. K. Das, Langmuir 2016, 32, 6701-6712.
2. D. Mandal, S. K. Mandal, M. Ghosh, P. K. Das, Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 12042-12052.
3. P. Choudhury, D. Mandal, S. Brahmachari, P. K. Das, Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22, 5160-5172.
4. D. Mandal, T. Kar, P. K. Das, Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 1349-1358.
5. S. Brahmachari, D. Das, A. Shome, P. K. Das, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2011, 50, 11243-11247.
6. S. Brahmachari, M. Ghosh, S. Dutta, P. K. Das, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2014, 2, 1160-1173. |