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Protein-polymer bioconjugate self-assembly has attracted a great deal of attention as a method to fabricate protein nanomaterials in solution and the solid state. To identify protein properties that affect phase behavior in protein-polymer block copolymers, a library of 15 unique protein-b-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) copolymers comprising 11 different proteins was compiled and analyzed. Many attributes of phase behavior are found to be similar among all studied bioconjugates regardless of protein properties, such as formation of micellar phases at high temperature and low concentration, lamellar ordering with increasing temperature, and disordering at high concentration, but several key protein-dependent trends are also observed. In particular, hexagonal phases are only observed for proteins within the molar mass range 20-36 kDa, where ordering quality is also significantly enhanced. While ordering is generally found to improve with increasing molecular weight outside of this range, most large bioconjugates exhibited weaker than predicted assembly, which is attributed to chain entanglement with increasing polymer molecular weight. Additionally, order-disorder transition boundaries are found to be largely uncorrelated to protein size and quality of ordering. However, the primary finding is that bioconjugate ordering can be accurately predicted using only protein molecular weight and percentage of residues contained within β sheets. This model provides a basis for designing protein-PNIPAM bioconjugates that exhibit well-defined self-assembly and a modeling framework that can generalize to other bioconjugate chemistries., United States. Department of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences (Award DE-SC0007106)

The use of nanoparticles for cellular therapeutic or sensing applications requires nanoparticles to bind, or adhere, to the cell surface. While nanoparticle parameters such as size, shape, charge, and composition are important factors in cellular binding, the cell itself must also be considered. All cells have an electrical potential across the plasma membrane driven by an ion gradient. Under standard conditions the ion gradient will result in a −10 to −100 mV potential across the membrane with a net negative charge on the cytosolic face. Using a combination of flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy experiments and dissipative particle dynamics simulations, we have found that a decrease in membrane potential leads to decreased cellular binding of anionic nanoparticles. The decreased cellular binding of anionic nanoparticles is a general phenomenon, independent of depolarization method, nanoparticle composition, and cell type. Increased membrane potential reverses this trend resulting in increased binding of anionic nanoparticles. The cellular binding of cationic nanoparticles is minimally affected by membrane potential due to the interaction of cationic nanoparticles with cell surface proteins. The influence of membrane potential on the cellular binding of nanoparticles is especially important when considering the use of nanoparticles in the treatment or detection of diseases, such as cancer, in which the membrane potential is decreased.