Dendrimer-based dynamic combinatorial libraries

The aim of this project is to create water-sol. dynamic combinatorial libraries based upon dendrimer-guest complexes. The guest mols. are designed to bind to dendrimers using multiple secondary interactions, such as electrostatics and hydrogen bonding. We have been able to incorporate various guest mols. into the fifth generation adamantyl-urea terminated dendrimer (DAB), including peptides, provided that they are appended with an acid-urea group. These guest mols. also serve to solubilize the otherwise insol. dendrimer in water. These dendrimer-guest complexes have been shown to be stable in water. The guest mols. displayed at the periphery of the dendrimer can then bind to a receptor (protein) in a multivalent fashion. The aggregation behavior of the dendrimer-guest complexes and receptors can be studied using AFM and fluorescence measurements.