Speaker
Description
Recently, there has been growing interest in developing biomimetic strategies that provide enhanced spatiotemporal control over molecular self-assembly, enabling access to structures and properties that are unattainable under thermodynamic control. One approach involves mimicking the dissipative self-assembly of cytoskeletal microtubules, which continuously consume chemical fuels to regulate their supramolecular structure and function over time, operating in so-called non-equilibrium steady states (NESS). Over the past decade, a variety of chemically fueled artificial systems have been reported, in which energy-consuming reaction cycles are coupled to self-assembly processes. In parallel, DNA-based systems regulated by energy-dissipating mechanisms have also emerged. However, the vast majority of these systems rely on batchwise addition of chemical fuels in closed reactors, generating transient non-equilibrium states that contrast sharply with the sustained NESS observed in biological systems. In this talk, I will present an unprecedented example of a dissipative DNA-based system maintained at a non-equilibrium steady state, achieved through the continuous supply of an RNA fuel to a stirred semi-batch reactor, where it is enzymatically converted into waste. I will show how the system dynamically adapts to subtle variations in fuel supply, reaching different steady-state levels of a strand-displacement reaction in real time, thereby mimicking the behaviour of biological NESS. Furthermore, I will demonstrate how dissipative self-assembly can be harnessed to control the formation of porous supramolecular materials. In this case, the controlled supply of chemical fuels to a solution of building blocks (for example under diffusion-controlled conditions).
