This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Northwestern University scientists have developed remarkably long, precisely patterned molecular threads that could open new possibilities for designing advanced materials. The scientists also discovered that these threads—called supramolecular polymers—can dramatically enhance brain cell activity.
The study is published in the journal Science. Built from self-assembling molecules, the longest threads reach lengths greater than the diameter of a cell. By molecular standards, they are giant—roughly 100 times more massive than even very large conventional polymers and the largest known proteins in biology.
Yet despite their enormous size, scientists can precisely control their lengths and organize them into chemically distinct segments with defined dimensions and opposite electrical charges. That precision also produced an unexpected biological effect. In cell culture studies, the structures enhanced the growth and organization of neurons and increased synapse formation.
The findings introduce a new way to use self-assembly to build highly controlled supramolecular materials with precise arrangements of chemical structures. Ultimately, the work could inform the design of materials for a range of applications, including biomaterials for regenerative medicine. "These structures represent a breakthrough in materials design, and we already discovered one useful application: their superbioactivity toward neurons, which will bring new opportunities in regenerative medicine," said Northwestern's Samuel I.
Stupp, who led the study. "Typically, when we design a regenerative material, we add biological signals designed to activate cell receptors. Here, the material itself becomes highly bioactive simply through the precise organization of electrical charges and its dynamic behavior.
That introduces a very different way of thinking about how materials can communicate with cells." Three members of the Stupp laboratory are co-primary authors of the paper: postdoctoral fellow Michael Dore and graduate students Simon Egner and Madison Strong. The new study builds on Stupp's long history of working with supramolecular materials, dynamic structures that form when molecules spontaneously organize through weak, reversible interactions. While conventional polymers, like plastics, hold together using strong, permanent chemical bonds, supramolecular polymers are dynamic, allowing their components to move and reconfigure.
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