Geometrical patterning of receptor sites controls kinetics via many-body effects in bivalent systems

Abstract

We report on the geometrical patterning of receptor sites in bi- and multi-valent systems as a modality for controlling kinetic behaviors, in both synthetic and biological contexts, that is independent of the underlying chemistry. Exploring motifs, chains, and lattices of receptor sites, we recast this phenomenon as one of many-body coordination, making contact with classical treatments of interacting systems, implicating geometric frustration as an important heuristic for rational design. In doing so, we also reveal the possibility of other tunable spatio-temporal features, such as correlation lengths, mean-squared displacements, and percolation-like transitions.