{"id":7290,"date":"2016-04-27T02:56:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T02:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/?p=278804"},"modified":"2016-04-28T02:56:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T02:56:26","slug":"artificial-protein-controls-first-self-assembly-of-c60-fullerenes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2016\/04\/27\/artificial-protein-controls-first-self-assembly-of-c60-fullerenes\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial protein controls first self-assembly of C60 fullerenes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Buckminsterfullerene (C60<\/sub>), aka fullerene and buckyball (credit: St Stev via Foter.com \/ CC BY-NC-ND)<\/p><\/div>\n

A Dartmouth College<\/a> scientist and his collaborators* have created the first high-resolution co-assembly between a protein and buckminsterfullerene (C60<\/sub>), aka fullerene and buckyball (a sphere-like molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms and shaped like a soccer ball).<\/p>\n

“This is a proof-of-principle study demonstrating that proteins can be used as effective vehicles for organizing nanomaterials by design,” says senior author\u00a0Gevorg Grigoryan<\/a>, an assistant professor of computer science at Dartmouth and senior author of a study discussed in an open-access paper in the journal in\u00a0Nature Communications<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Proteins organize and orchestrate essentially all molecular processes in our cells. The goal of the new study was to create a new artificial protein that can direct the self-assembly of fullerene into ordered superstructures.<\/p>\n

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COP, a stable tetramer (a polymer derived from four identical single molecule) in isolation, interacts with C60 (fullerene) molecules via a surface-binding site and further self-assembles into a co-crystalline array called C60<\/sub>Sol\u2013COP (credit: Kook-Han Kim et al.\/Nature Communications)<\/p><\/div>\n

Grigoryan and his colleagues show that\u00a0that their artificial protein organizes a fullerene into a lattice called C60<\/sub>Sol\u2013COP. COP, a protein that is a stable tetramer (a polymer derived from four identical single molecules), interacted with fullerene molecules via a surface-binding site and further self-assembled into an ordered crystalline superstructure. Interestingly, the superstructure exhibits high charge conductance, whereas both the protein-alone crystal and\u00a0amorphous C60<\/sub> are electrically insulating.<\/p>\n

Grigoryan says that if we learn to do the programmable self-assembly of precisely organized molecular building blocks more generally, it will lead to a range of new materials with properties such as higher strength, lighter weight, and greater chemical reactivity, resulting in a host of applications, from medicine to energy and electronics.<\/p>\n

Fullerenes are currently used in nanotechnology because of their high heat resistance and electrical superconductivity (when doped), but the molecule has been difficult to organize in useful ways.<\/p>\n

* The study also included researchers from Dartmouth College, Sungkyunkwan University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the National Institute of Science Education and Research, the University of California-San Francisco, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Institute for Basic Science.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Abstract of\u00a0Protein-directed self-assembly of a fullerene crystal<\/em><\/h4>\n

Learning to engineer self-assembly would enable the precise organization of molecules by design to create matter with tailored properties. Here we demonstrate that proteins can direct the self-assembly of buckminsterfullerene (C60<\/sub>) into ordered superstructures. A previously engineered tetrameric helical bundle binds C60<\/sub>\u00a0in solution, rendering it water soluble. Two tetramers associate with one C60<\/sub>, promoting further organization revealed in a 1.67-\u00c5 crystal structure. Fullerene groups occupy periodic lattice sites, sandwiched between two Tyr residues from adjacent tetramers. Strikingly, the assembly exhibits high charge conductance, whereas both the protein-alone crystal and amorphous C60<\/sub>\u00a0are electrically insulating. The affinity of C60<\/sub>\u00a0for its crystal-binding site is estimated to be in the nanomolar range, with lattices of known protein crystals geometrically compatible with incorporating the motif. Taken together, these findings suggest a new means of organizing fullerene molecules into a rich variety of lattices to generate new properties by design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Dartmouth College scientist and his collaborators* have created the first high-resolution co-assembly between a protein and buckminsterfullerene (C60), aka fullerene and buckyball (a sphere-like molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms and shaped like a soccer ball). “This is a proof-of-principle study demonstrating that proteins can be used as effective vehicles for organizing nanomaterials by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,55,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics","category-nanotechmaterials-science","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7290"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7291,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7290\/revisions\/7291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}