Binding hydrophilic molecules is challenging due to high hydration energy. So why not bind them with their water? Our work (the Cai group at USF and us) shows a flexible proline cage capturing fluoride along with its hydration shell with strong affinity. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Proline-based tripodal cages with guest-adaptive features for capturing hydrophilic and amphiphilic fluoride substances - Nature Communications
Proteins dynamically adjust their conformations to interact with their ligands through binding sites that accommodate either amphiphilic or hydrophilic substrates, but most synthetic receptors are des...
