A major challenge for the construction of artificial lipid membranes is the development of simple and robust methods for mimicking natural phospholipid membrane generation. Here we describe a nonenzymatic and chemoselective approach that relies on histidine ligation to form phospholipids de novo from water-soluble amphiphilic precursors. The resulting phospholipids can spontaneously self-assemble into micron-sized vesicles and encapsulate small charged molecules and biomacromolecules. Such approach can be useful in bottom up construction of an artificial cell.

Spontaneous phospholipid membrane formation by histidine ligation

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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