Special Issue "Macromolecules: Chemistry, Medicinal and Functional Materials"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Russell Crawford
Dean, Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Mail 31, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn 3122, Australia
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Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Elena Ivanova
Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Mail 31, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn 3122, Australia
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• Polysaccharides
• Extracellular polymeric substances
• Antibacterial compound

Manuscript ID: Molecules-macrochem-20090817-Dufresne-fr
Title: Processing Of Polymer Nanocomposites Reinforced With Polysaccharide Nanocrystals
Author: Alain Dufresne
Affiliation: The International School of Paper, Print Media and Biomaterials, Grenoble Institute of Technology, BP 65, 38402 Saint Martin d’Hères Cedex, France; E-Mail : Alain.Dufresne@grenoble-inp.fr
Abstract : Aqueous suspensions of polysaccharide (cellulose, chitin or starch) nanocrystals can be prepared by acid hydrolysis of the biomass. The main problem is related to the homogeneous dispersion of these nanoparticles within a polymeric matrix. Water is the preferred processing medium. A new and interesting way for the processing of polysaccharide nanocrystals-based nanocomposites is their transformation into a co-continuous material through long chain surface chemical modification. It involves the surface chemical modification of the nanoparticles based on the use of grafting agents bearing a reactive end group and a long compatibilizing tail.

Manuscript ID: Molecules-macrochem-20090820-Drikakis-uk
Type of the paper: Article
Title: Coarse-Grain Modelling of ssDNA at Nucleotide Level using a Force-Matching Approach
Authors: Dimitris Drikakis and Massimo Lai
Affiliation: Department of Fluid Mechanics and Computational Science, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, United Kingdom; E-mail: d.drikakis@cranfield.ac.uk, m.lai@cranfield.ac.uk
Abstract: We present a coarse-grained (CG) model of single-stranded DNA. The model has been developed using an implementation of the force-matching coarse-graining (FMCG) method first introduced by (Izvekov and Voth 2005). The atomistic model is mapped onto a reduced set of coarse-grained interaction sites (chosen as the centers of mass of opportune chemical groups). The CG potential parameters are derived by least-squares minimisation of the discrepancy between the interatomic forces produced by an all-atom simulation and those predicted by the chosen CG potential. The choice of the mapping and the adequacy of the structural sampling are also discussed.
Keywords: resources; renewable; life cycle assessment; resource efficiency; resource management

Manuscript ID: Molecules-nanocat-20091001-Nagamune-jp
Type of Paper: Article
Title: Artificial Self-Sufficient Cytochrome P450 in Reversed Micelles
Author: Teruyuki Nagamune
Affiliations: ¹ Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan; E-Mail: nagamune@bio.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
² Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Abstract: Cytochrome P450s, which are heme-containing monooxygenases and require electron transfer proteins for their catalytic activities, prefer hydrophobic compounds as substrates and it is desirable to be utilized in non-aqueous media. Reversed micelles can stably encapsulate proteins in nano-scaled water core in organic solvents. However, multiple proteins are separated into each micelle in reversed micellar system and it is difficult to transfer electrons between proteins. On the other hand, an artificial self-sufficient cytochrome P450, which is an enzymatically crosslinked fusion protein composed of P450 and electron transfer proteins, showed micelle-size dependent catalytic activity in reversed micellar system.