Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes

Prof. Damien Baigl Department of Chemistry, Ecole Normale Superieure 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France

Website : http://www.baigllab.com/

"Bottom-up designed, triggerable soft matter systems : from DNA and protein regulation to responsive membranes and light-driven microfluidics."

We follow a bottom-up approach to design various kinds of triggerable soft matter systems allowing the control of a large variety of properties and functions in response to an external stimulus, such as light. At the molecular scale, the photocontrol of nucleic acid (DNA, RNA) higher-order structure [1,2] enables the photocontrol of gene expression at both transcription and translation levels, in a sequence-independent and reversible manner [3,4]. This is currently applied for the photocontrol of enzymatic reactions [5] and membrane protein assembly. Enzymatic activity can also be controlled through regulated higher-order structural changes of giant DNA-protein star-shaped conjugates [6,7]. At a supramolecular level, we use light to break the membrane of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) with high spatial resolution [8]. The GUV response to light is sensitive to membrane fluidity and critically depends on the presence of solid or liquid-ordered lipid domains. We are also engineering giant proteoliposomes containing functional membrane proteins at a high yield. Finally, at the micro- to macro-scales, we develop laser-free methods where a simple light illumination stimulus (e.g., from a LED device) is used to manipulate [9], divide [10], mix [11] or merge continuous flows (light-driven microfluidics) or discrete droplets (digital optofluidics), with high spatio-temporal resolution, in a cost-effective, portable and robust manner.

[1] Chem. Eur. J. 2010, 16, 11890-11896

[2] Soft Matter 2011, 7, 5854-5860

[3] Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2009, 106, 12219-12223

[4] Biomacromolecules 2011, 12, 3945-3951

[5] ACS Synth. Biol. 2012, 1, 526–531

[6] Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 12694 –12698

[7] Soft Matter 2013, doi : 10.1039/C3SM50710F

[8] J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 4898 4904

[9] Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 9281-9284

[10] Lab Chip 2011,11, 2666-2669

[11] J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 3218–3223