Spontaneous Phospholipid Membrane Formation by Histidine Ligation

Abstract

A major challenge for the construction of artificial lipid membranes is the development of simple and robust methods for mimicking natural phospholipid membrane generation. Here we describe a nonenzymatic and chemoselective approach that relies on histidine ligation to form phospholipids de novo from water-soluble amphiphilic precursors. The resulting phospholipids can spontaneously self-assemble into micron-sized vesicles and encapsulate biomacromolecules.