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Updated: Aug 6, 2025

Author Spotlight: Developing Synthetic Cells from Programmable Amphiphilic DNA Nanostructures
Published on: May 31, 2024
Two-Dimensional Supramolecular Polymerization of DNA Amphiphiles is Driven by Sequence-Dependent DNA-Chromophore
Muhammad Ghufran Rafique1, Jacob M Remington2, Finley Clark2
1Department of Chemistry, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke St W, H3A 0B8, Montréal, QC, Canada.
Abstract:
Two-dimensional (2D) assemblies of water-soluble block copolymers have been limited by a dearth of systematic studies that relate polymer structure to pathway mechanism and supramolecular morphology. Here, we employ sequence-defined triblock DNA amphiphiles for the supramolecular polymerization of free-standing DNA nanosheets in water. Our systematic modulation of amphiphile sequence shows the alkyl chain core forming a cell membrane-like structure and the distal π-stacking chromophore block folding back to interact with the hydrophilic DNA block on the nanosheet surface. This interaction is crucial to sheet formation, marked by a chiral "signature", and sensitive to DNA sequence, where nanosheets form with a mixed sequence, but not with a homogeneous poly(thymine) sequence. This work opens the possibility of forming well-ordered, bilayer-like assemblies using a single DNA amphiphile for applications in cell sensing, nucleic acid therapeutic delivery and enzyme arrays.
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