Autonomous growth of spatially localized supramolecular hydrogel through emergence of autocatalytic ability

• Published in: Angewandte Chemie International Edition
• Main Authors: Rodon Fores, Jennifer, Criado-Gonzalez, Miryam, Chaumont, Alain, Carvalho, Alain, Blanck, Christian, Schmutz, Marc, Boulmedais, Fouzia, Schaaf, Pierre, Jierry, Loïc
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley-VCH Verlag 2020
• Subjects: Chemical Sciences; Material chemistry
• ISSN: 1433-7851; 1521-3773
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.202005377

Supporting information for this article is given via a link at the end of the document. Abstract: Autocatalysis and self-assembly are key processes in developmental biology and are involved in the emergence of life. In the last decade both features were extensively investigated by chemists with the final goal to design synthetic living systems. Herein, we describe the autonomous growth of a self-assembled soft material, i.e. a supramolecular hydrogel, able to sustain its own formation through an autocatalytic mechanism not based on any template effect and emerging from a peptide (hydrogelator) self-assembly. A domino sequence of events starts from an enzymatically triggered peptide generation followed by their self-assembly into catalytic nanofibers inducing and amplifying their production over time, resulting in a 3D hydrogel network. A cascade is initiated by traces (10-18 M) of a trigger enzyme which can be localized allowing for a spatial resolution of this autocatalytic buildup, an essential condition to fulfil on the route toward further cell mimic designs.