The cover of review of Chemical Society reports the research results of biomimetic system molecular assembly of Institute of Chemistry

Many basic structural units in the life system can self assemble spontaneously and form various nanostructures in a specific environment Protein folding and unfolding play an important role in cell life activities Protein misfolding can lead to the onset of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease In fact, the formation of amyloid fiber is a common feature of this kind of diseases Through the research on the sequence and effective molecular recognition unit of proteins, polypeptides and even oligopeptides related to the formation of amyloid fiber, people can design biologically inspired self-assembly building units, and then use them in the design and preparation of materials With the support of the Ministry of science and technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, researchers in the Key Laboratory of the Institute of chemistry, colloid, interface and chemical thermodynamics, have been committed to the research of "biomimetic system molecular assembly" in recent years, and have made a series of research results In the review journal of the Royal chemical society, chem SOC Rev, 2010, 39, 1877-1890) published a review article entitled self assembly and application of diphenylalanine based nanostructures, systematically introduced the work of the group in peptide based molecular assembly in recent years, and was selected as the cover paper of this issue Based on the concept of molecular bionics, the research group constructed a series of peptide based nanostructures using different peptides as self-assembly primitives The assembled peptide nanostructures show their unique advantages in application, such as tissue engineering, drug transport, biological imaging and biosensor in the field of biomedicine It can also be used as template material for the preparation of various functional nanostructures Peptide molecular self-assembly can be designed and functionalized at the molecular level to control the shape and structure of the assembly (angelw Chem Int ed.2007, 46, 2431; chem EUR J 2008, 14, 5974.), which is helpful for us to understand the formation and regulation of some structures in organisms Under certain conditions, such peptide molecules can self assemble into nanofibers and eventually form a macroscopic gel network structure (Chem Mater 2008, 20, 1522; Chem Eur J 2010, 16, 3176.) In addition, in order to endow nano biomaterials with new characteristics, some new construction strategies have been developed to prepare bio organic-inorganic composite materials For example, the combination of cationic oligopeptides and fluorescent quantum dots can be used to prepare biocompatible three-dimensional colloidal spheres, which can be used to label living cells (small, 2008, 4, 1687); the combination of cationic oligopeptides and multivalent anions can be used to construct adaptive hybrid supramolecular networks, which can be used to encapsulate a variety of scale object materials, and has potential applications in drug control and release (adv mater.2010, 22, 1283).