Development of Biomimetic Systems for the Transportation of Ions and Water across Lipid Bilayer Membranes

Abstract

The thesis aims to develop small molecule based artificial systems for selective transport of anion and water across the phospholipid membrane. The transport of essential solutes across the bilayer membrane is crucial for the smooth functioning of the cellular processes. Naturally occurring transporter systems perform this job for intracellular pH control, cell volume regulation, osmotic balance regulation, signal transduction, stabilization of resting potential, etc., and have shown promising application as antibacterial, antimalarial, antimicrobial, and anticancer agents, etc. Here we develop artificial carrier and channel forming molecules, which have the ability to mimic the roles of naturally occurring transport systems. The anion recognition behavior of the carrier molecules was confirmed by performing the solution phase NMR and computation studies, whereas the transportability of all transporters was evaluated across various lipid membranes, including vesicular and planar membranes. Additionally, we have developed water channel systems for selective translocation of water across phospholipid membranes, which can be applied in various applications, including the development of biomimetic RO membranes.