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Projeto de investigação
Bio-inspired materials for fish spoilage control
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Publication . Ramou, Efthymia; Palma, Susana I. C. J.; Roque, Ana Cecília A.; DQ - Departamento de Química; UCIBIO - Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit; ACS - American Chemical Society
In the original version of this article on p 6272, the Acknowledgments section lacks the reference of a funding scheme. In the revised Acknowledgment below, the reference LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-028878 has been added: “(···) in the scope of the project PTDC/BII-BIO/28878/ 2017 (LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-028878) (···)” This correction does not alter the conclusions of the work. ¦ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (SCENT-ERC-2014-STG-639123, 2015-2022) and by national funds from FCT-Fundacao para a Cienciaea Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the project PTDC/BII-BIO/28878/2017 (LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-028878), UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of the Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences-UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy-i4HB. The authors would also like to thank Tomás Calmeiro from CENIMAT|i3N for the AFM images, Ana Marques and Isabel Ferreira from the Energy Materials (EM) Lab for AFM and Raman, and Carla Rodrigues from LAQV analysis lab for the DSC experiments. The authors acknowledge support from previous lab members, namely, Gonc¸alo Santos, Cláudia Alves, and Fábio Leite.
Impact of the Cationic Moiety of Ionic Liquids on Chemoselective Artificial Olfaction
Publication . Oliveira, Ana Rita; Ramou, Efthymia; Palma, Susana I. C. J.; Esteves, Carina; Barbosa, Arménio; Roque, Ana Cecília Afonso; UCIBIO - Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit; DQ - Departamento de Química; ACS - American Chemical Society
Ionogels and derived materials are assemblies of polymers and ionic liquids characterized by high stability and ionic conductivity, making them interesting choices as gas sensors. In this work, we assessed the effect of the ionic liquid moiety to generate ionogels and hybrid gels as electrical and optical gas sensors. Six ionic liquids consisting of a constant anion (chloride) and distinct cationic head groups were used to generate ionogels and hybrid gels and further tested as gas sensors in customized electronic nose devices. In general, ionogel-based sensors yielded higher classification accuracies of standard volatile organic compounds when compared to hybrid material-based sensors. In addition, the high chemical diversity of ionic liquids is further translated to a high functional diversity in analyte molecular recognition and sensing.
Synergy between silk fibroin and ionic liquids for active gas-sensing materials
Publication . Moreira, Inês P.; Esteves, Carina; Palma, Susana I. C. J.; Ramou, Efthymia; Carvalho, Ana L. M.; Roque, Ana C. A.; UCIBIO - Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit; DQ - Departamento de Química; Elsevier BV
Silk fibroin is a biobased material with excellent biocompatibility and mechanical properties, but its use in bioelectronics is hampered by the difficult dissolution and low intrinsic conductivity. Some ionic liquids are known to dissolve fibroin but removed after fibroin processing. However, ionic liquids and fibroin can cooperatively give rise to functional materials, and there are untapped opportunities in this combination. The dissolution of fibroin, followed by gelation, in designer ionic liquids from the imidazolium chloride family with varied alkyl chain lengths (2-10 carbons) is shown here. The alkyl chain length of the anion has a large impact on fibroin secondary structure which adopts unconventional arrangements, yielding robust gels with distinct hierarchical organization. Furthermore, and due to their remarkable air-stability and ionic conductivity, fibroin ionogels are exploited as active electrical gas sensors in an electronic nose revealing the unravelled possibilities of fibroin in soft and flexible electronics.
Native, engineered and de novo designed ligands targeting the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein
Publication . Costa, Carlos Filipe Santos; Barbosa, Arménio J. M.; Dias, Ana Margarida Gonçalves Carvalho; Roque, Ana Cecília A.; DQ - Departamento de Química; UCIBIO - Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit; Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the deadly coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) and is a concerning hazard to public health. This virus infects cells by establishing a contact between its spike protein (S-protein) and host human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) receptor, subsequently initiating viral fusion. The inhibition of the interaction between the S-protein and hACE2 has immediately drawn attention amongst the scientific community, and the S-protein was considered the prime target to design vaccines and to develop affinity ligands for diagnostics and therapy. Several S-protein binders have been reported at a fast pace, ranging from antibodies isolated from immunised patients to de novo designed ligands, with some binders already yielding promising in vivo results in protecting against SARS-CoV-2. Natural, engineered and designed affinity ligands targeting the S-protein are herein summarised, focusing on molecular recognition aspects, whilst identifying preferred hot spots for ligand binding. This review serves as inspiration for the improvement of already existing ligands or for the design of new affinity ligands towards SARS-CoV-2 proteins. Lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic are also important to consolidate tools and processes in protein engineering to enable the fast discovery, production and delivery of diagnostic, prophylactic, and therapeutic solutions in future pandemics.
Textural landscapes of VOC-sensitive chiral liquid crystal-based materials
Publication . Ramou, Efthymia; Roque, Ana Cecília A.; DQ - Departamento de Química; UCIBIO - Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit; AIP - American Institute of Physics
Liquid crystal-based materials, in which liquid crystal molecules are confined and ordered in compartments, are dynamic materials yielding a variety of optical textures that can be tuned as a response to physical and chemical stimuli. While nematic and smectic-based gel materials have been reported as dynamic optical sensors to report volatile organic compounds (VOCs), chiral systems are less explored despite having the potential to yield extremely rich optical landscapes. Here, we report for the first time the confinement of chiral liquid crystal formulations by an interface formed by ionic liquid molecules. The resultant self-assembled ionic liquid/liquid crystal droplets are simultaneously immobilized on a gelatin matrix. The droplets feature a rich variety of unique topological states. We explored, by means of polarizing optical microscopy, the various droplet optical textures and categorized them with regard to their relative chirality parameter. We further investigated their optical response in the presence of gas analytes and discussed their potential utilization as dynamic liquid crystal-based optical VOC sensors. The newly generated soft materials with semi-selective VOC sensing capabilities can be further utilized in arrays of liquid crystal-based gas sensors for the analysis of complex gas samples using artificial olfaction approaches.
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Entidade financiadora
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Programa de financiamento
9471 - RIDTI
Número da atribuição
PTDC/BII-BIO/28878/2017