Séminaire: 18 Mars Pr. S. Lecommandoux

27 February 2025

Self-Assembly of Biohybrid Polymers:
from Smart Therapeutics to artificial cells

Tuesday March 18th at 10.30 am
Salle Emile BOREL
29 rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris

Sébastien Lecommandoux
Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, Bordeaux INP, LCPO, UMR 5629, ENSCBP, 16 Avenue
Pey-Berland, Pessac F-33600, France
E-mail: sebastien.lecommandoux@u-bordeaux.fr

Our scientific approach is based on biomimicry, as we engineer synthetic mimics of natural macromolecules (such as proteins or glycoproteins), and explore their controlled and tunable self-assembly to form structures similar to those found in nature (such as virus or cell membranes). In this context, we develop polymer-based self-assembled nanoparticles, mostly polymeric vesicles, also named polymersomes, with high loading content of active pharmaceutical ingredients (e.g., anticancer drugs, peptides, proteins) and targeting ability. Our expertise includes the synthesis of precise, biocompatible polymers such as polypeptides (by chemical synthesis or recombinant DNA technology), polysaccharides, and their conjugates.
We present here an overview of the self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers and their contribution in nanomedicine. We pay particular attention to block copolymer vesicles based on polysaccharides, polypeptides and proteins especially based on Elastin Like Polypeptides (ELPs) and their modification with synthetic polypeptides [1], saccharides [2], polysaccharides [3] and lipids [4], aiming at mimicking both the structure and functionality of glycoproteins and lipoproteins. The ability of these systems for different biomedical applications, from bioprinting, drug-delivery to inhibitor, will be presented [5,6]. Finally, our most recent advances in the design of complex, compartmentalized and functional artificial cells will be presented [7-11]. These systems represent a first step towards the challenge of structural and functional mimicry of cells, which in future could act autonomously to detect and repair any biological deregulation in situ.

[1] M Badreldin et al. Biomacromolecules 25, 3033 (2024). P. Salas-Ambrosio J. Am. Chem. Soc.
143, 3697 (2021).
[2] LMM Bravo Anaya et al. Biomacromolecules 22, 1, 76–85 (2021)
[3] M. Levêque et al. Biomaterials Science 10, 6365-6376 (2022)
[4] V Ibrahimova et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 60, 15036-15040 (2021)
[5] M. Levêque et a. Biomacromolecules 25, 3011 (2024)
[6] H. Duan et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 132 (32), 13693-13698 (2020)
[7] H. Zhao et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 132 (27), 11121-11129 (2020)
[8] H. Zhao et al. Advanced Science 2102508 (2021)
[9] C. Schwartzman et al. Advanced Materials 17, 2301856 (2023)
[10] C.G. Palivan et al. Biomacromolecules 25(9), 5454−5467 (2024)
[11] E. Equy.et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. in press (2025).

Sébastien Lecommandoux
Professor at University of Bordeaux
Bordeaux INP/CNRS
https://www.lcpo.fr/people/faculties/sebastien-lecommandoux

Short Biography
Sébastien Lecommandoux received his Ph.D. (1996) in Physical Chemistry from the University of Bordeaux. After a postdoctoral experience at the University of Illinois (UIUC, USA) in the group of Prof. Samuel I. Stupp, he started his academic career at the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques as Associate Professor in 1998 and was promoted to Full Professor at Bordeaux INP in 2005. He is currently Director of the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques (LCPO-CNRS) and is leading the group “Polymers Self-Assembly and Life Sciences”. His research interests include the design of bio-inspired polymers for biomaterials and pharmaceutical development, especially based on polypeptide, proteins and polysaccharide-based block copolymers self-assembly, the design of polymersomes for drug-delivery and theranostic, as well as biomimetic approaches toward design of synthetic viruses and artificial cells. He published over 235 publications in international journal, 6 book chapters and 15 patents (3 being licenced, 1 start-up created Doxanano). He is also co-director of the joint laboratory LCPO-L’OREAL. Sébastien Lecommandoux is recipient of the CNRS bronze medal (2004), Institut Universitaire de France Junior Chair (IUF 2007), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry RSC (2017), French Academy of Science Chemistry Seqens Award (2019), Member of the Academia Europaea (2020), XingDa Lectureship Award from Peking University (2021). He currently holds the Chaire annuelle Innovation technologique Liliane Bettencourt, Collège de France (2024-2025). He is Editor-in-Chief of Biomacromolecules (ACS) since 2020 after serving as Associate Editor since 2013. He is also in the Editorial Advisory Board of several international journals, including Bioconjugate Chemistry (ACS), Polymer Chemistry (RSC), Biomaterials Science (RSC) and RSC Applied Polymers.