Engineering live cell surfaces with functional polymers via cytocompatible controlled radical polymerization

Abstract

The capability to graft synthetic polymers onto the surfaces of live cells offers the potential to manipulate and control their phenotype and underlying cellular processes. Conventional grafting-to strategies for conjugating preformed polymers to cell surfaces are limited by low polymer grafting efficiency. Here we report an alternative grafting-from strategy for directly engineering the surfaces of live yeast and mammalian cells through cell surface-initiated controlled radical polymerization. By developing cytocompatible PET-RAFT (photoinduced electron transfer-reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer polymerization), synthetic polymers with narrow polydispersity (M/M < 1.3) could be obtained at room temperature in 5 minutes. This polymerization strategy enables chain growth to be initiated directly from chain-transfer agents anchored on the surface of live cells using either covalent attachment or non-covalent insertion, while maintaining high cell viability. Compared with conventional grafting-to approaches, these methods significantly improve the efficiency of grafting polymer chains and enable the active manipulation of cellular phenotypes.

RAFT Emulsion Polymerization as a Platform to Generate Well‐Defined Biocompatible Latex Nanoparticles

“…To elicit if the P(PEGA) block remained at the particle surface, we used a PEG‐selective aggregation assay, based on the well‐known property of PEG as a tannin‐binding agent . This operates on a similar basis to lectin‐glycopolymer assays, where addition of an agent which can bind multiple substrates (nanoparticles, polymers, etc.)…”

Unraveling Photocatalytic Mechanism and Selectivity in PET‐RAFT Polymerization

“…[16,[24][25][26][27][28] As specific examples, considering the activity of PheoA (Figure 1a) and ZnTPP (Figure 1b) with respect to a set of six RAFT agents which comprises dithiobenzoates (4cyanopentanoic acid dithiobenzoate: CPADB, 2-cyano-2-propyl www.advancedsciencenews.com www.advtheorysimul.com Scheme 1. [16,[24][25][26][27][28] As specific examples, considering the activity of PheoA (Figure 1a) and ZnTPP (Figure 1b) with respect to a set of six RAFT agents which comprises dithiobenzoates (4cyanopentanoic acid dithiobenzoate: CPADB, 2-cyano-2-propyl www.advancedsciencenews.com www.advtheorysimul.com Scheme 1.…”

Living and Conducting: Coating Individual Bacterial Cells with In Situ Formed Polypyrrole

“…Fort his experiment, aL IVE/DEAD BacLight bacterial viability kit [15] that consists of green fluorescing SYTO 9a nd red fluorescent propidium iodide (PI) was employed to differentiate S. oneidensis MR-1 cells with membranes (live cells) from those with compromised membranes (dead cells). [16,17] Then, we investigated the morphology of PPy-coated S. oneidensis MR-1 by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Such results were also approximate to that of unmodified S. oneidensis MR-1 (Figure 1b and Figure S1b), which confirmed that the viability of S. oneidensis MR-1 cells was essentially unchanged by the application of PPy coatings.T he proliferation of PPycoated bacterial cells was confirmed by cell-culture experi-ments ( Figure S2).…”