Supramolecular Self-Assembly into Biofunctional Soft Nanotubes - From Bilayers to Monolayers

Speaker:Prof.Toshimi Shimizu,National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology,AIST

Time: 10:00a.m.Thursday,October 27th

Place：A718,SINANO

Abstract:

The inner and outer surfaces of bilayer-based lipid nanotubes can be hardly modified selectively by a favorite chemical functional group. On the other hand, monolayer-based nanotubes can display a definite difference in their inner and outer functionalities if bipolar wedge-shaped amphiphiles as a constituent of the monolayer membrane pack in a parallel fashion with a head-to-tail interface. In order to exclusively form unsymmetrical monolayer lipid membrane, we focus on the rational molecular design of the amphiphiles and a variety of self-assembly processes into tubular architectures. The importance of polymorph and polytype control of the monolayer membranes, and novel biologically important functions of the obtained soft nanotubes will be discussed.