Calixarene-based amphiphiles : synthesis, self-assembly and interaction with DNA

The present doctoral thesis focused on the synthesis of amphiphilic calix[4]arenes, the study of their self-assembly properties at the air-water interface as Langmuir monolayers or in solution as nanoparticles and on the DNA-binding properties of the resulting self-assembled structures. The objective is to improve the understanding of the interaction of amphiphilic calixarene-based nanoparticles with DNA molecules, and to improve the comprehension of the effect of the calixarene structure: on the self-assembly of the amphiphilic calixarene as nanoparticles and on the interaction of the calixarene-based nanoparticles with DNA.
The results reported in my PhD dissertation highlight the influence of the calixarene structure, on their self-assembly as Langmuir monolayer at the air-water interface and as nanoparticles in water. Moreover the binding mechanism between the DNA phospho-diester backbone and the self-assembled calix[4]arene is dependent of the number of recognition moieties but is also governed by a sequence dependent interaction mechanism.