Biomedical subjects

Sami Nummelin

Publications and source records attributed to Sami Nummelin.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Principles of self-assembly of helical pores from dendritic dipeptides.

The self-assembly of the dendritic dipeptides (4-3,4-3,5)nG2-CH2-Boc-L-Tyr-L-Ala-OMe and their achiral dendritic alcohol (4-3,4-3,5)nG2-CH2OH precursors, both with n = 1-16, where n represents the number of methylenic units in the alkyl groups of the dendron, are reported. All chiral dendritic dipeptides and achiral dendritic alcohols self-assemble into helical porous columns that are stable in both solution and solid state. The pore diameter (D(pore)) of the columns self-assembled from dendritic dipeptides is approximately 10 A larger than that of structures assembled from dendritic alcohols. The increase of the D(pore) at the transition from dendritic alcohol to dendritic dipeptide is accompanied by a decreased solid angle of the building block. This trend is in agreement with previous pore size-solid angle dependences observed with different protective groups of the dipeptide and primary structures of the dendron. However, within the series of dendritic alcohols and dendritic dipeptides with various n, the D(pore) increases when the solid angle increases. The results of these investigations together with those of previous studies on the role of dipeptide stereochemistry and protective groups on this self-assembly process provide the molecular principles required to program the construction of supramolecular helical pores with diameter controlled at the A level from a single dendritic dipeptide architecture. These principles are expected to be valid for libraries of dendritic dipeptides based on dendrons and dipeptides with various primary structures.

Circular Dichroism↗

PubMed2004

Alkoxy-, acyloxy-, and bromomethylation of resorcinarenes.

Reaction of resorcinarene octols with tris-hydroxymethylmethylamine (TRIS), formaldehyde, and alcohols results in tetraalkoxymethylation of the resorcinol rings. Harsh acylation of aminomethylated resorcinarenes with acid anhydrides leads to the complete acylation of eight hydroxyls and substitution of the amino versus acyloxy groups. Acyloxymethylated resorcinarene 6b can be transformed into a tetrabromomethylated derivative 7 through the reaction with HBr in acetic acid.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Self-assembly of amphiphilic dendritic dipeptides into helical pores.

Natural pore-forming proteins act as viral helical coats and transmembrane channels, exhibit antibacterial activity and are used in synthetic systems, such as for reversible encapsulation or stochastic sensing. These diverse functions are intimately linked to protein structure. The close link between protein structure and protein function makes the design of synthetic mimics a formidable challenge, given that structure formation needs to be carefully controlled on all hierarchy levels, in solution and in the bulk. In fact, with few exceptions, synthetic pore structures capable of assembling into periodically ordered assemblies that are stable in solution and in the solid state have not yet been realized. In the case of dendrimers, covalent and non-covalent coating and assembly of a range of different structures has only yielded closed columns. Here we describe a library of amphiphilic dendritic dipeptides that self-assemble in solution and in bulk through a complex recognition process into helical pores. We find that the molecular recognition and self-assembly process is sufficiently robust to tolerate a range of modifications to the amphiphile structure, while preliminary proton transport measurements establish that the pores are functional. We expect that this class of self-assembling dendrimers will allow the design of a variety of biologically inspired systems with functional properties arising from their porous structure.

Biological Transport↗

PubMed2004

Bisfunctionalized Janus molecules.

[reaction: see text] Bisfunctionalized dendritic multiester molecules were synthesized by combined protection-deprotection and divergent-convergent-divergent sequences in high yields leading to dendritic molecules that combine two functionally different surfaces, polar aliphatic arborol and nonpolar gallate ether moieties, resulting in a two-faced Janus molecule.

Journal Article↗