🎨 Our JACS Supplementary Cover is out!

A supramolecular story of fibers, peptide helicates, and DNA three-way junctions…

👉 pubs.acs.org/toc/jacsat/1...

#DNAjunction #MyACSCover #ChemSky #SupramolecularChem

@acs.org @pubs.acs.org @jacs.acspublications.org

🧩 Our system can selectively recognize 3WJs in two ways:
1️⃣ From preformed Co(II) helicates
2️⃣ Or directly from the P-agg supramolecular polymer — just by adding Co(II) ions!

💤 The polymer acts as a latent reservoir, releasing bioactive helicates on demand.

#DNAjunction #SupramolecularChem #ChemSky

🔍 Both Co(II) and Co(III) peptide helicates selectively recognize three-way DNA junctions (3WJs) — a key non-canonical DNA structure 🧬
🧪 Competition assays confirm their strong preference for 3WJs over canonical B-DNA

#DNAjunction #SupramolecularChem #ChemSky

Redox chiral control 🌀
👉 Oxidizing ΛΛ-Co(II) helicate to Co(III) in water keeps the ΛΛ chirality
👉 But in DMSO… ΛΛ helicate flips into its ΔΔ form!
💡 Metal oxidation enables chiral inversion — a novel powerful tool to build redox-responsive chiral systems

#DNAjunction #SupramolecularChem #ChemSky

After adding Co(II) ions → magic happens ✨
👉 In water, P-agg slowly disassembles and BTMA-1 folds into ΛΛ helicates
👉 In DMSO, molecularly dissolved BTMA-1 folds into ΔΔ helicates
👉 This chiral change is fully reversible and driven by arginine side chains

#DNAjunction #SupramolecularChem #ChemSky

What happens to BTMA-1 in water?
👉 It self-assembles into P-agg: a chiral supramolecular helical polymer.
👉 P-agg is stabilized by π–π stacking and H-bonding.
👉 In this “off” state, P-agg acts as an inert reservoir — no DNA binding yet!

#DNAjunction #SupramolecularChem #ChemSky

The key to our approach is BTMA-1…
👉 A C₃-symmetric peptide equipped with six 2,2’-bipyridine arms.
👉 Designed to form chiral supramolecular helical polymers in water.
👉 And to generate discrete peptide helicates upon metal ion coordination.

#DNAjunction #SupramolecularChem #ChemSky

Unlocking a Biological Interface of Chiral Supramolecular Helical Polymers Here we report a C3-symmetric metal-binding tripeptide, BTMA-1, that self-assembles in water into either a chiral supramolecular helical polymer or a discrete CoII peptide helicate, depending on metal coordination. The CoII peptide helicate exhibits high affinity and selectivity toward DNA three-way junctions (3WJ), a class of noncanonical DNA structures with emerging biological relevance. Importantly, we demonstrate that the recognition process can be triggered dynamically by adding CoII ions to a dispersion of the supramolecular polymer, which acts as an inert precursor reservoir in physiological media. In this way, our strategy shows that chiral supramolecular helical polymers can form temporarily inactive aggregates that release discrete helicates for biomolecular recognition, such as 3WJ binding, upon metal ion coordination. Overall, this mechanism reveals a previously unexplored capability of this class of materials and offers a new approach for the design of responsive supramolecular systems for nucleic acid recognition and anticancer therapy.

Big news! 🚀
Our new paper is out in JACS!
👉 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
“Unlocking a Biological Interface of Chiral Supramolecular Helical Polymers”
#DNAjunction #SupramolecularChem #ChemSky
@acs.org @pubs.acs.org @jacs.acspublications.org

Thank you, Miguel!
It was great to have you all here in Paris. It was our first meeting, but it was so exciting and promising! I'm eager to repeat this beautiful experience next year, certainly in the UK! Stay tuned!
#DNA #DNAjunction #iMAJ #IRN