Article:Barnard, A., Posocco, P., Fermeglia, M. et This article reports self-assembling dendrons which bind DNA in a multivalent manner. The molecular design directly impacts on self-assembly which subsequently controls the way these multivalent nanostructures bind DNA -this can be simulated by multiscale modelling. Incorporation of an S-S linkage between the multivalent hydrophilic dendron and the hydrophobic units responsible for self-10 assembly allows these structures to undergo triggered reductive cleavage, with dithiothreitol (DTT) inducing controlled breakdown, enabling the release of bound DNA. As such, the high-affinity selfassembled multivalent binding is temporary. Furthermore, because the multivalent dendrons are constructed from esters, a second slow degradation step causes further breakdown of these structures. This two-step double-degradation mechanism converts a large self-assembling unit with high affinity for 15 DNA into small units with no measurable binding affinity -demonstrating the advantage of selfassembled multivalency (SAMul) in achieving highly responsive nanoscale binding of biological targets.