New Types of Bioinspired Nanomaterials: Nano Peptoids and Single-Atom Nanozymes

Description:
In this talk, I will discuss my group's recent work in two biomimetic nanomaterials: nanopeptoids and single-atom nanozymes. The first type of bioinspired materials is a sequence-defined peptide-like materials that mimics the structure and function of peptides and proteins. Compared with peptides and proteins, peptoids have a high degree of thermal and chemical stability, and are resistant to proteolytic degradation. In addition, due to the lack of intramolecular and intermolecular backbone hydrogen bond donors, it is possible to precisely control the peptoid-peptoid and peptoid-substrate interactions, leading to bio-inspired synthesis of nanomaterials. As a peptide mimic, the peptoids are biocompatible and non-toxic. Nano-peptoids can be synthesized with polar and hydrophobic monomers and have the following advantages: They can be easily processed into desired shapes (e.g. dendritic, sheets, tubes and vesicles), and the size range is 2-100 nm to enhance cell targeting and uptake. The application of nano-peptoids in cell imaging and cancer theranostics will be discussed. Another type of bioinspired nanomaterials is single-atom nanoenzymes with enzyme-like properties. We have developed various Fe-N-C based single atomic site catalysts which have similar structure with active site of peroxidase. These atomically-dispersed Fe-N-C materials have enzyme-like properties, therefore they are classified as single-atom nanozymes. Together with their high-density active sites and specific structures, these single atomic nanozymes have great potential for the enhancement of biocatalytic activity and selectivity in biosensing.
References:
1. L. Jiao, H. Yan, Y. Wu, W. Gu, C. Zhu, D. Du, Y. Lin. When Nanozymes Meet Single-Atom Catalysis. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020,132, 2585-2596
2. L. Jiao, W. Xu, Y. Wu, H. Yan, W. Gu, D. Du, Y Lin, C. Zhu, Single-atom Catalysts Boost Signal Amplification for Biosensing. Chemical Society Reviews 2021, 50, 750-765

Speaker: Yuehe Lin - Washington State University