Reversible control of vesicle formation

In the next step, vesicle systems will be developed that either form or disaggregate in response to an external input. It is well established that a spherical micelle to vesicle transition is achieved when the degree of polymerization of the polyelectrolyte segment is reduced. This behavior will be utilized to generate switchable aggregates of scpDNAs. We will start out from double stranded (ds) scpDNA spherical micelles. The formation of ds scpDNA micelles from single stranded (ss) precursors was recently demonstrated by our group in the context of engineering the structural properties of micelles by molecular recognition.(Ding KAlemdaroglu FEBoersch MBerger RHerrmann AAngew. Chem. Int. Ed.  46 (7): 1172-1175 2007) Electronically induced, isothermal dehybridization will be realized by a pH transition due to the electrolysis of water. In this way ds scpDNAs of spherical micelles will be transformed into ss DBCs that adopt vesicular structures due to significant reduction of the molecular weight of the hydrophilic polymer unit. The reverse process, a vesicle to micelle transition will be achieved by hybridization. 

Figure 1:  Spherical micelle to vesicle transition induced by change in pH. The reverse process can be initiated by hybridization.