A Northwestern University study published Oct. 1, 2026, reports that precisely patterned supramolecular polymers were associated with longer neurites and greater synaptic activity in neuronal cell cultures. After seven days, treated neurons had four times the overall calcium activity of untreated neurons; after 14 days, they had formed more synapses.
A polymer built from precisely arranged charges
The assemblies are fibrillar, peptide-containing polymers whose segments can exceed 30 micrometers in length. At that scale, their collective molar mass is about one billion daltons. The study describes a self-capping assembly process that leaves dormant ends when monomers are absent, limiting further growth.
How the polymer’s charge pattern meets a neuron
The architecture tested on neurons had a small, positively charged segment between two negatively charged segments of different lengths. The positive segment anchors the assembly to the negatively charged neuron surface, while the flanking negative segments remain nearby and dynamic.
Northwestern reported that the charge arrangement mattered in cell cultures: assemblies made entirely of positive segments killed neurons, while all-negative and randomly mixed positive-and-negative patterns produced no notable response. The central-positive, flanked-negative pattern was associated with neurite growth.
What the cell cultures showed
Northwestern reported longer, more branched neurites—projections that extend from neurons—in cultures treated with the selected assemblies. After seven days, overall calcium activity in treated neurons was four times that in untreated neurons. After 14 days, treated neurons had formed more synapses.
In cultures of human neural progenitor cells, the assemblies were also associated with raised three-dimensional clusters connected by axons.
