Cover Picture: DNA-Scaffolded Multivalent Ligands to Modulate Cell Function (ChemBioChem 9/2014)

Reversible control of cell membrane receptor function using DNA nano-spring multivalent ligands.

Chemically functionalized and nanostructured materials, which mimic the features of the natural extracellular matrix, provide a tool to organize cell surface receptors into nanoscale clusters and manipulate cell functions. However, the existing materials are mainly based on static structures. Herein, we developed a DNA based structure-switchable and multivalent material that acts as a 'nano-spr...

Cover Picture: Detection of mRNA in Mammalian Cells with a Split Ribozyme Reporter (ChemBioChem 6/2006)

The cover picture shows a split RNA reporter strategy for detecting target mRNA in mammalian cells. A tetrahymena group I intron ribozyme reporter is split into two halves, each of which carries a part of the coding sequence of the reporter mRNA, a fragment of the ribozyme, and an antisense sequence complementary to a target mRNA. Both halves bind with the target mRNA and are assembled into an ...

Binding of Multivalent Ligands to Cells: E ects of Cell and Receptor Density Condensed title: Binding of Multivalent Ligands (Keywords: Multivalent Ligands, Crosslinking

We study the equilibrium binding properties of multivalent ligands and mixtures of ligands of diierent valence to cell surface receptors. We examine the eeects of changing cell density or number of receptors per cell, i.e., receptor concentration, over a wide but physiologically relevant range. Qualitatively diierent behaviour arises in the excess receptor regime, where the volume concentration...

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Self-assembled multivalent carbohydrate ligands.

Materials that display multiple carbohydrate residues have gained much attention due to their potential to inhibit or modulate biological multivalent interactions. These materials can be grouped accordingly to the way they are prepared, as unimolecular or as self-assembled systems. Both systems take advantage of the fact that multivalent interactions have significantly higher binding affinity t...