Pigment-based biosensors for trapping pollutants
Scientists from Trinity College of Dublin developed new biological sensors from pigments that can act like “Venus flytrap” for trapping pollutants.
The re-engineered pigments can detect as well as catch specific pollutants and soon will have a significant role in medical, security and environmental applications.
Scientists at Trinity reconfigured the Porphyrins, a rare class of pigments, normally produced as an end product in hemoglobin metabolism to develop these potential biosensors for trapping pollutants.
Porphyrins play a major role in living organisms both in plants and animals. They have prominent roles in the metabolism of hemoglobin and chlorophyll, the pigments in animals and plants respectively. They can accommodate a variety of metal ions giving rise to its unique properties.
Professor Mathias O. Senge, Chair of Organic Chemistry of Trinity college studied the metal-free porphyrins to create an entirely new range of molecular receptors.
Scientists were able to access the unexplored core of the porphyrin system by forcing the metal-free porphyrin to turn inside out into a saddle shape.
They re-engineered the saddle-shaped porphyrins by introducing functional groups near the active center. The new porphyrins were able to catch agricultural or pharmaceutical pollutants like pyrophosphates and sulfates
, and then hold them in the receptor-like cavity.Porphyrins are color sensitive compounds, they change color drastically when they successfully catch their target molecules, functional as effective Biosensors for trapping pollutants.
Karolis Norvaiša, the first author of the study compared this biosensor to a “Venus flytrap”. When you bend the porphyrin inside out, it resembles the shape of a venus flytrap with short stiff hair-like triggers inside. The functional groups at the periphery selectively capture the target molecules and hold then in the cavity just like the venus flytrap traps the insects inside.
The international journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition published their work titled “Conformational Re‐engineering of Porphyrins as Receptors with Switchable N−H⋅⋅⋅X‐Type Binding Modes”.
The discovery funded by Science Foundation Ireland and an August-Wilhelm Scheer guest professorship award for Professor Senge at the Technical University of Munich marks the beginning of an EU-wide H2020 FET-OPEN project called INITIO to eliminate the pollutants.
Author : Namitha Thampi
