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Materials

Pores Expand To Fit Proteins

New metal-organic framework compounds may have drug delivery and other applications

by Elizabeth K. Wilson
May 28, 2012 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 90, Issue 22

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Credit: Science
In this artist’s conception, A protein sits inside the pore of a new metal-organic framework.
An artists rendition of a protein, represented with a ribbon structure, encased in a MOF, represented by a hexagonal pore made of grey, red, and blue balls.
Credit: Science
In this artist’s conception, A protein sits inside the pore of a new metal-organic framework.

Researchers have synthesized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with pore apertures large enough to house protein molecules, up to 98 Å (Science, DOI 10.1126/sci​ence.1220131). Until now, pores in such materials that are larger than 32 Å have been difficult to achieve. MOFs are already important in industry and engineering for molecule storage and separation. Now, scientists are able to store biological molecules, including large organic molecules and proteins, within these material frameworks, reports an international team including Omar M. Yaghi and Hexiang Deng at UCLA. The group began its synthesis with a well-studied MOF, MOF-74, which contains linkers that have one phenylene ring. They expanded the linker structures by adding two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, and 11 phenylene rings, which produced a series of isoreticular structures having the same topology as the original MOF-74 but with sequentially larger pores.

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