Artificial cells have the potential to shed light on numerous biological processes, and can be used widely in drug delivery, micro-reactor design and bottom-up synthetic biology. Therefore, there is a tremendous interest to develop novel strategies for the generation of synthetic membranes. Here we describe the use of non-enzymatic methodologies to spontaneously form artificial membranes by modification of functional peptides via chemoselective lipidation. In particular, we have developed a ligation reaction to conjugate peptide sequences with long-chain precursors, and the resulting lipidated peptides self-assembled into synthetic membranes <i>in situ</i>. Orthogonality, high reaction rates, and biocompatibility of this method lead to efficient encapsulation of relevant biomolecules for synthetic biology applications. Additionally, the construction of peptide-lipid conjugates using this approach can serve as carrier molecules with specific targets and modes of action.

Construction of synthetic membranes by chemoselective lipidation of peptides

255th National Meeting (2018)

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