Nanotecnología en la Agricultura del Futuro: Diseño y Desarrollo de Nanoherbicidas Inteligentes
Leonardo Fernandes Fraceto explores the development of nanoherbicides for more efficient, sustainable weed control. This Spanish-language webinar covers design strategies, interactions between nanomaterials and plants, controlled release, reduced herbicide doses and potential reductions in environmental impact. It examines how these principles could support more precise crop management and discusses the practical benefits, barriers and opportunities associated with adopting nanoherbicides in real agricultural systems. Speaker: Dr. Leonardo Fernandes Fraceto, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil. The registration page also lists Dr. Ingrid Montes, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras. Co-produced by ACS Webinars and Sociedad Química de México. Wednesday 30 September 2026, 14:00–15:00 America/New_York (EDT); the live registration page confirms 20:00 CEST. Online via Zoom Events, free registration required. Follow Regístrese Gratuitamente on the ACS event page to the verified Zoom Events registration page. A free ACS ID may be required. Slides are scheduled to be available on the webinar day.
Adhering, wrapping, and bursting of lipid bilayer membranes: understanding effects of membrane-binding particles and polymers
Proteins and membranes form remarkably complex structures that are key to intracellular compartmentalization, cargo transport, and cell morphology. Despite this wealth of examples in living systems, we still lack design principles for controlling membrane morphology in synthetic systems. With experiments and simulations, we show that even the simple case of spherical or rod-shaped nanoparticles binding to lipid-bilayer membrane vesicles results in a remarkably rich set of morphologies that can be reliably controlled via the particle binding energy. When the binding energy is weak relative to a characteristic membrane-bending energy, vesicles adhere to one another and form a soft solid gel, which is a useful platform for controlled release. With larger binding energy, a transition from partial to complete wrapping of the nanoparticles causes a remarkable vesicle destruction process culminating in rupture, nanoparticle-membrane tubules, and vesicle inversion. We have explored the behavior across a wide range of parameter space. These findings help unify the wide range of effects observed when vesicles or cells are exposed to nanoparticles. They also show how they open the door to a new class of vesicle-based, closed-cell gels that are more than 99% water and can encapsulate and release on demand. I will discuss how triggering membrane remodeling could lead to shape-responsive systems in the future.