Tailor-made Janus lectin with dual avidity assembles glycoconjugate multilayers and crosslinks protocells

We engineered the first chimeric, bispecific lectin, with two rationally oriented and distinct recognition surfaces. This lectin, coined Janus lectin in allusion to the two-faced roman god, is able to bind independently to both fucosylated and sialylated glycoconjugates. The multivalent presentation of binding sites on each face of the Janus lectin is very efficient, resulting in avidities in the low nanomolar range for both fucosylated and sialylated surfaces. Moreover, novel heterovalent, bifunctional glycoclusters were synthetized that match the topology of the Janus lectin. Based on these tools, we constructed organized and controlled supramolecular architectures by assembling Janus lectin and glycocompound layer-by-layer. Furthermore, the Janus lectin was employed as biomolecular linker to organize protocells made from giant unilamellar vesicles of different nature, to more complex prototissues. In summary, tailor-made Janus lectins open wide possibilities for creating biomimetic matrices or artificial tissues.