Professor Katharina Landfester, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany
 
Title: Nanocapsules as cell modules. 
 
Abstract: Our aim is at developing vesicular structures, i.e. protocells, based on block copolymer self-assembly and engulfed nanocontainers with incorporated functions, such as energy production and the control of transport properties through nanomembranes. Therefore, we have designed and developed nanocapsules that act as cell-like compartments and can be loaded with enzymes for synthetic biology and chemistry. In addition, self-assembly of well-defined diblock copolymers has been used to generate polymersomes and hybrid liposomes/polymersomes. Both strategies allow the compartimentalization on the nano- or microscale and conducting enzymatic or chemical reactions in the confinement of the polymersomes/ nanocarriers. New block copolymers and permeable nanocarriers have been synthesized and optimized. With these protocols we were able to establish an enzymatic reaction cascade within droplet-based compartments. These compartments can act as cell-like functions to regenerate NAD. For these tasks, novel conductive polymer nanoparticles have been developed which will be included into the protocells for the NAD regeneration by light. Also enzyme-complexes are assembled that will fulfill these requirements.

Transmembrane transport of ions, molecules and particles is also fundamental to functionality in biology. However, the direct investigation in living cells is very difficult due to the complexity of biological membranes and the diverse coupling of interactions. Therefore, transport of nanoparticles into a minimal model system, based also on a vesicle-forming amphiphilic copolymer was probed in our group. The physical properties of these copolymer molecules are similar to phospholipids and therefore provide the necessary fluidity of a membrane,while ensuring excellent mechanical stability at the same time. The latter is due to the slow exchange of polymer chains between aggregates compared to the experimental time scale (kinetically trapped or “frozen” structures). In addition, the use of the synthetic membrane allows the uncoupling of all involved interactions and processes.

Biography: Katharina Landfester received her doctoral degree in Physical Chemistry after working in 1995 at the MPI for Polymer Research (MPIP). After a postdoctoral stay at the Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), she worked at the MPI of Colloids and Interfaces in Golm leading the mini-emulsion group. From 2003 to 208, she was professor at the University of Ulm. She joined the Max Planck Society in 2008 as one of the directors of the MPIP. She was awarded the Reimund Stadler prize of the German Chemical Society and the prize of the Dr. Hermann Schnell Foundation, followed by the Bruno Werdelmann Lecturer in 2012 and the Bayer Lecturer in 2014. Her research focusses on creating functional colloids for new material and biomaterial applications. 

Dr Paul Race, School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol
 
Title: Kill or cure: Repurposing bacterial adhesins for therapeutic payload delivery. 
 
Abstract: Adherence of bacteria to biotic or abiotic surfaces is a prerequisite for host colonisation and represents an important step in microbial pathogenicity. This attachment is facilitated by bacterial adhesins at the cell surface. Due to their size and often elaborate multi-domain architectures, these polypeptides represent challenging targets for detailed structural and functional characterisation. Here I outline how fundamental studies of the multifunctional fibrillar adhesin CshA have revealed a hitherto unreported mechanism of human cell surface binding, which is now being exploited as the basis for a stem cell homing technology. 
 
Biography: Paul is a senior lecturer in Biochemistry at the University of Bristol. He leads the pan-UK EPSRC funded Manufacturing Immortally project, which aims to develop bio-hybrid self-healing ‘living materials’. He is a former Co-Director of the BrisSynBio synthetic biology research centre, and was a founding Director of the Bristol BioDesign Institute. He is co-founder and non-executive Director of the University of Bristol spinout company Zentraxa Ltd., which uses a proprietary biodesign platform to develop bioadhesives for aerospace, marine and medical applications. 

Bristol BioDesign Institute Conference e-programme

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