Assembly of Membrane Encapsulated Nanoreactors

This project aims at engineering synthetic self-contained energy-transducing biomembrane vesicles that can serve as nanoreactors, incorporating both natural and bespoke membrane proteins. The ultimate goal is to control the flux of specific molecules into or out of the nanoreactors and the chemistry within them.

In order to achieve this, a range of component membrane proteins have been produced, which will act as gateways to control the influx and efflux of molecules and ions in a contained phospholipid environment. These include multidrug transporters, e.g. AcrB and Sav1866, sugar transporters, e.g. SglT, the light-driven sodium pumping rhodopsin NaR (KR2) and the light-driven proton pump – bacteriorhodopsin (bR). Various methods are being developed to control the orientation, stoichiometry and self-assembly of the components upon reconstitution into liposomes.

In addition to a traditional method of reconstitution directly into liposome vesicles, nanoreactors can be also assembled using a supported lipid bilayer. SAGE peptide nanocages are being explored for that purpose as a potential scaffold that would increase the robustness of synthetic liposomes.

Moreover, various assays are being explored for the purpose of monitoring membrane transport in assembled nanoreactors using spectroscopic methods, including assays from antibiotic and sugar transport.

This system will be further developed for the purpose of catalysis, synthesis of chemicals and degradation of toxic molecules.