Signaling in Systems Chemistry: Programing Gold Nanoparticles Formation and Assembly Using a Dynamic Bistable Network

Living cells exploit bistable and oscillatory behaviors as memory mechanisms, facilitating the integration of transient stimuli into sustained molecular responses that control downstream functions. Synthetic bistable networks have also been studied as memory entities, but have rarely been utilized to control orthogonal functions in coupled dynamic systems. We herein present a new cascade pathway, for which we have exploited a well-characterized switchable peptide-based replicating network, operating far from equilibrium, that yields two alternative steady-state outputs, which in turn serve as the input signals for consecutive processes that regulate various features of Au nanoparticle shape and assembly. This study further sheds light on how bridging together the fields of systems chemistry and nanotechnology may open up new opportunities for the dynamically controlled design of functional materials.