Synthesis of specific macromolecular ligands for protein binding, recognition and purification.

Proteins bind and recognise each other using large surface areas. Sensing and recognizing specific proteins is therefore important for a number of applications, including medicine, biology and chemistry. The aim of this project involves the synthesis of a variety of large molecules that can be modified for “specific” or “selective” protein binding. These include dendrimers and Graphene Oxide (GO). These molecules are large and contain functionality that can be modified using dynamic/reversible techniques. This approach allows a target protein to act as a template to control the functionalisation of the dendrimer/GO through guided self-assembly. In doing so, the target protein will generate its own optimised macromolecular ligand. Once synthesised, these molecules will be studied for use in a variety of applications, including target driven drug delivery and as inhibitors for protein-protein binding.