Sara Bals

Chirality, or the absence of mirror symmetry, is omnipresent in both biological and abiological forms of matter. Rapid progress has recently been achieved in the synthesis of chiral inorganic nanoparticles (NPs), of great interest because of the giant optical activity observed in individual NPs and their assemblies. Such nanostructures yield chiral features at multiple length scales, resulting in a huge diversity of chiral morphologies. The field is expanding toward connecting chirality across the worlds of nano and bio, linking optical and biological chiral functionalities. However, what is currently hampering real-world applications is the step from intuitive synthesis of chiral nanostructures to a purposeful design for specific interactions with biological components.

The main objective of CHIRAL-PRO is to develop a widely applicable methodology to design chiral NPs with exceptional optical activity, for strong and predictable enantioselective interactions with nanoscale biological entities, such as proteins and amyloid fibrils. The fundamental understanding of the role of chirality in the recognition between inorganic and biological chiral structures will be used for the programmed assembly into optically active nanofibers and for case studies in sensing and metamaterials.

To reach this ambitious goal, the complementary expertise of all three partners involved will be essential: synthesis and assembly of chiral plasmonic NPs (Liz-Marzán); three-dimensional electron microscopy of NPs, and the visualization of their interactions with biomolecules in liquid (Bals); and self-assembly methods and computational predictions for chiral multiscale interactions (Kotov). In addition to groundbreaking advancements in fundamental research, the high gain of this work can be found in the generation of a toolbox enabling the scientific community to shift from guessing to precise design of chiral nanostructures with predefined properties.