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Folding Made Easy
The goal of self-assembly is to program particle interactions such that they aggregate into a unique architecture with a specific function. In biology, linear sequences of amino acids have evolved to spontaneously fold into well-defined protein geometries. In a system of much reduced complexity, we show an analogous design strategy that successfully folds colloidomers, i.e. polymers made of micron-sized droplets, into desired folds. These supra-colloidal building blocks pave the path towards programmable macroscopic architectures, such as aperiodic crystals or colloidal micelles.