A series of three-dimensional structures has been created by New York University chemists. According to the NYU team, these creations are one step closer to resembling materials found in nature.
To get closer to mimicking natural materials, the NYU researchers devised a process in which simple building blocks, or monomers, form more complex polymers that can fold into secondary structures such as helices, sheets, or random coils that are capable of further assembly into higher order three-dimensional structures, often referred to as a tertiary structure in proteins.
"Our methodology not only creates chain molecules that spur the creation of configurations similar to those in the natural world, but also promotes further assembly into more complex and compartmentalized systems," explains Marcus Weck, professor in NYU's department of chemistry and the senior author of the Journal of the American Chemical Society paper published today. "These creations yield new knowledge of the folding process in nature as well as synthetic systems and, with it, the possibility to investigate misfolding, which is critical for a variety of diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and cystic fibrosis."
Currently, the engineering of well-defined structures similar to those found in nature is beyond the reach of most chemists. Primarily, this is because the orchestration of structures of enzymes, proteins, and DNA is a complex undertaking, which includes an array of cooperative processes across multiple domains. Weck explains that his team’s strategy "takes these elements and engineers 3D architectures from well-defined secondary structures containing building blocks."
"While much work is dedicated to the engineering of bio-inspired synthetic folding systems that feature individual helical and sheet-like segments, our structures achieve design complexity while still maintaining simplistic routes to analyze assembled structures," he adds.