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Disordered protein-graphene oxide co-assembly and supramolecular biofabrication of functional fluidic devices

Disordered protein-graphene oxide co-assembly and supramolecular biofabrication of functional fluidic devices
Disordered protein-graphene oxide co-assembly and supramolecular biofabrication of functional fluidic devices

Supramolecular chemistry offers an exciting opportunity to assemble materials with molecular precision. However, there remains an unmet need to turn molecular self-assembly into functional materials and devices. Harnessing the inherent properties of both disordered proteins and graphene oxide (GO), we report a disordered protein-GO co-assembling system that through a diffusion-reaction process and disorder-to-order transitions generates hierarchically organized materials that exhibit high stability and access to non-equilibrium on demand. We use experimental approaches and molecular dynamics simulations to describe the underlying molecular mechanism of formation and establish key rules for its design and regulation. Through rapid prototyping techniques, we demonstrate the system’s capacity to be controlled with spatio-temporal precision into well-defined capillary-like fluidic microstructures with a high level of biocompatibility and, importantly, the capacity to withstand flow. Our study presents an innovative approach to transform rational supramolecular design into functional engineering with potential widespread use in microfluidic systems and organ-on-a-chip platforms.

2041-1723
Wu, Yuanhao
020953e1-848a-4f74-8abc-bd532afa7600
Okesola, Babatunde O.
45408cc8-db61-485a-807b-695e2301d8f5
Xu, Jing
752cbb1d-9ec1-40cd-a82a-01fddc10459c
Korotkin, Ivan
1ca96363-075e-41d9-a0c1-153c8c0cc31a
Berardo, Alice
6c4243d0-a9ab-4338-a46f-d4beeb840220
Corridori, Ilaria
fa8642ad-4415-4004-8997-e90a76a088c0
di Brocchetti, Francesco Luigi Pellerej
82ae731e-b573-4115-8f09-01c496c3cd5c
Kanczler, Janos
eb8db9ff-a038-475f-9030-48eef2b0559c
Feng, Jingyu
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Li, Weiqi
00817587-46a2-4809-97b0-66e612d1d557
Shi, Yejiao
d6bd301e-6b62-4feb-aa39-f9a4a458ad1f
Farafonov, Vladimir
207a6c3e-4af2-4f1e-8a8c-7db7dc00ed17
Wang, Yiqiang
277991a3-206b-4d58-b7f2-9b2ed08562f0
Thompson, Rebecca F.
11461400-6235-4b01-b0da-037b7545f558
Titirici, Maria Magdalena
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Nerukh, Dmitry
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Karabasov, Sergey
39acae29-1474-4567-a51c-af177ad0fe72
Oreffo, Richard O.C.
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Carlos Rodriguez-Cabello, Jose
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Vozzi, Giovanni
ab6b04c4-e52d-4382-b4ab-ca78b4776486
Azevedo, Helena S.
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Pugno, Nicola M.
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Wang, Wen
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Mata, Alvaro
c67ceb11-02c5-429c-a5e6-308c322f176b
Wu, Yuanhao
020953e1-848a-4f74-8abc-bd532afa7600
Okesola, Babatunde O.
45408cc8-db61-485a-807b-695e2301d8f5
Xu, Jing
752cbb1d-9ec1-40cd-a82a-01fddc10459c
Korotkin, Ivan
1ca96363-075e-41d9-a0c1-153c8c0cc31a
Berardo, Alice
6c4243d0-a9ab-4338-a46f-d4beeb840220
Corridori, Ilaria
fa8642ad-4415-4004-8997-e90a76a088c0
di Brocchetti, Francesco Luigi Pellerej
82ae731e-b573-4115-8f09-01c496c3cd5c
Kanczler, Janos
eb8db9ff-a038-475f-9030-48eef2b0559c
Feng, Jingyu
724176c6-ffc7-434b-b730-2048bdd197c2
Li, Weiqi
00817587-46a2-4809-97b0-66e612d1d557
Shi, Yejiao
d6bd301e-6b62-4feb-aa39-f9a4a458ad1f
Farafonov, Vladimir
207a6c3e-4af2-4f1e-8a8c-7db7dc00ed17
Wang, Yiqiang
277991a3-206b-4d58-b7f2-9b2ed08562f0
Thompson, Rebecca F.
11461400-6235-4b01-b0da-037b7545f558
Titirici, Maria Magdalena
775b7f76-7885-4f12-94c2-67437d7952a5
Nerukh, Dmitry
75d91f2c-d211-469d-b13b-d0fc7fe2b219
Karabasov, Sergey
39acae29-1474-4567-a51c-af177ad0fe72
Oreffo, Richard O.C.
ff9fff72-6855-4d0f-bfb2-311d0e8f3778
Carlos Rodriguez-Cabello, Jose
585d0c63-fcb4-4e98-9f31-958c6c9958a6
Vozzi, Giovanni
ab6b04c4-e52d-4382-b4ab-ca78b4776486
Azevedo, Helena S.
4e4ee31c-979e-408d-b772-3834c76fb732
Pugno, Nicola M.
858c8d66-16f9-4979-a272-f8758a316729
Wang, Wen
6c00a03a-f46e-47a6-b777-050cc3e0d922
Mata, Alvaro
c67ceb11-02c5-429c-a5e6-308c322f176b

Wu, Yuanhao, Okesola, Babatunde O., Xu, Jing, Korotkin, Ivan, Berardo, Alice, Corridori, Ilaria, di Brocchetti, Francesco Luigi Pellerej, Kanczler, Janos, Feng, Jingyu, Li, Weiqi, Shi, Yejiao, Farafonov, Vladimir, Wang, Yiqiang, Thompson, Rebecca F., Titirici, Maria Magdalena, Nerukh, Dmitry, Karabasov, Sergey, Oreffo, Richard O.C., Carlos Rodriguez-Cabello, Jose, Vozzi, Giovanni, Azevedo, Helena S., Pugno, Nicola M., Wang, Wen and Mata, Alvaro (2020) Disordered protein-graphene oxide co-assembly and supramolecular biofabrication of functional fluidic devices. Nature Communications, 11 (1), [1182]. (doi:10.1038/s41467-020-14716-z).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Supramolecular chemistry offers an exciting opportunity to assemble materials with molecular precision. However, there remains an unmet need to turn molecular self-assembly into functional materials and devices. Harnessing the inherent properties of both disordered proteins and graphene oxide (GO), we report a disordered protein-GO co-assembling system that through a diffusion-reaction process and disorder-to-order transitions generates hierarchically organized materials that exhibit high stability and access to non-equilibrium on demand. We use experimental approaches and molecular dynamics simulations to describe the underlying molecular mechanism of formation and establish key rules for its design and regulation. Through rapid prototyping techniques, we demonstrate the system’s capacity to be controlled with spatio-temporal precision into well-defined capillary-like fluidic microstructures with a high level of biocompatibility and, importantly, the capacity to withstand flow. Our study presents an innovative approach to transform rational supramolecular design into functional engineering with potential widespread use in microfluidic systems and organ-on-a-chip platforms.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 24 January 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 4 March 2020
Published date: 1 December 2020
Additional Information: Funding Information: The work was supported by the ERC Starting Grant (STROFUNSCAFF), The Marie Curie Integration Grant FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG (BIOMORPH), and the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform (UKRMP2) Acellular/Smart Materials. The experiment at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source was allocated beam time under experiment number 1810221 (DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.90604998) and collected on LARMOR. This work benefitted from the SasView software, originally developed by the DANSE project under NSF award DMR-0520547. The computer modeling research utilized Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)’s Apocrita HPC facility, supported by QMUL Research-IT. The work of Ivan Korotkin has been supported under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship Grant H2020-MSCA-IF-2015-700276 (HIPPOGRIFFE). N.M.P. is supported by the European Commission under the Graphene Flagship Core 2 grant No. 785219 (WP14, “Composites”), the FET Proactive (“Neurofibres”) grant No. 732344, the FET Open (Boheme) grant No. 863179 as well as by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the “Departments of Excellence” grant L. 232/2016, the ARS01-01384-PROSCAN and the PRIN-20177TTP3S grants. J.C.R.C. is grateful for the funding from the Spanish Government (MAT2016-78903-R), Junta de Castilla y León (VA317P18), Interreg V España Portugal POCTEP (0624_2IQBIO-NEURO_6_E) and Centro en Red de Medicina Regenerativa y Terapia Celular de Castilla y León. R.O.C.O. and J.K. acknowledge support from the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform Acellular/Smart Materials – 3D Architecture (MR/R015651/1). The Titan Krios microscopes were funded by the University of Leeds (UoL ABSL award) and Wellcome Trust (108466/Z/15/Z). J.C.R.C. is grateful for funding from the European Commission (NMP-2014-646075 and MSCA-ITN-2014-642687), the Spanish Gov- ernment (PCIN-2015-010, MAT2015-68901-R, MAT2016-78903-R), Junta de Castilla y León (VA317P18) and Centro en Red de Medicina Regenerativa y Terapia Celular de Castilla y León. We thank Dr. Sherif Elsharkawy, Dr Himadri Gupta, Miss Xinru Deng, and Mr. Arturo Jose Mendoza Meinhardt from the School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS), QMUL and Dr. Maisoon Al-Jawad at the Centre of Oral Growth and Development at QMUL for valuable discussions, Dr. Dongsheng Wu and Mr. Gannian Zhang from SEMS at QMUL and Mr Russell Bailey at Nanovision at QMUL for technical support. We thank Dr. Robert Dalgliesh, Dr. Sarah Rogers, and Mr. Adam Washington from ISIS for helpful discussions around contrast matching. We thank Ms. Rebecca Carroll from QMUL for her excellent support during the histological sample preparation. Publisher Copyright: © 2020, The Author(s).

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 467650
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/467650
ISSN: 2041-1723
PURE UUID: 4820e84d-a91c-4930-98bd-c7b5eed2ae0c
ORCID for Ivan Korotkin: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5023-3684
ORCID for Janos Kanczler: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7249-0414
ORCID for Richard O.C. Oreffo: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5995-6726

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 18 Jul 2022 18:11
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:50

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Contributors

Author: Yuanhao Wu
Author: Babatunde O. Okesola
Author: Jing Xu
Author: Ivan Korotkin ORCID iD
Author: Alice Berardo
Author: Ilaria Corridori
Author: Francesco Luigi Pellerej di Brocchetti
Author: Janos Kanczler ORCID iD
Author: Jingyu Feng
Author: Weiqi Li
Author: Yejiao Shi
Author: Vladimir Farafonov
Author: Yiqiang Wang
Author: Rebecca F. Thompson
Author: Maria Magdalena Titirici
Author: Dmitry Nerukh
Author: Sergey Karabasov
Author: Jose Carlos Rodriguez-Cabello
Author: Giovanni Vozzi
Author: Helena S. Azevedo
Author: Nicola M. Pugno
Author: Wen Wang
Author: Alvaro Mata

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