Sommaire:

The implementation of photosensitive surfactants into various bottom-up designed soft matter systems allows us to place under photocontrol a large variety of properties and functions. At the molecular scale, the photocontrol of nucleic acid (DNA, RNA) higher-structure [1,2] enables the photocontrol of gene expression at both transcription and translation levels, in a sequence-independent and reversible manner [3,4]. This is currently applied for the photocontrol of enzymatic reactions and membrane protein assembly. At a supramolecular level, we use light to break the membrane of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) with high spatial resolution [5]. The GUV response to light is sensitive to membrane fluidity and critically depends on the presence of solid or liquid-ordered lipid domains. At the micro-scale, light-induced changes of wettability allow us to dynamically control using light the generation of micro-droplets in simple microfluidic devices [6]. At a macroscopic scale, a light-controllable Marangoni effect, called chromocapillary effect, is used to manipulate millimeter-sized droplets with high spatio-temporal resolution [7]. References: [1] Chem. Eur. J. 2010, 16, 11890-11896 [2] Soft Matter 2011, 7, 5854-5860 [3] Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2009, 106, 12219-12223 [4] Biomacromolecules 2011, 12, 3945-3951 [5] J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, doi: 10.1021/ja211664f [6] Lab Chip 2011,11, 2666-2669 [7] Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 9281-9284

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