Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting - October 25-30, 2015

Polymers and Self Assembly: From Biology to Nanomaterials

Thursday Speaker Abstracts

Supramolecular Self-Assembly Of ß-Peptides: New Materials With Tunable Morphology And Chemical Function Mibel Aguilar . Monash Universty, Clayton, Vic, Australia. Supramolecular self-assembly is rapidly emerging as a powerful strategy for the design of new materials in biomedicine and engineering applications. Peptide self-assembled systems offer significant advantages including biological compatibility, ease of synthesis, low toxicity and functionalisability. However, the control over essential features such as chemical, structural and metabolic stability, the scale and relatively slow rate of self-assembly remain significant challenges. We have designed helical N-acetyl-ß3-peptides that spontaneously undergo supramolecular self-assembly to form fibers ranging in size from nano- to macro-scale [1,2] via a unique head-to-tail fashion which is driven by a 3-point H-bond motif associated with the 14- helical structure of N-acetyl-ß3-peptides. In addition, the unique helical structure of the peptide monomer allow the introduction of a wide variety of functions via modification of the side chains of the component amino acids. We have exploited this symmetry to design a lateral supramolecular self-assembly motif to link the fibres in a controlled manner. We have shown that these materials can be chemically modified in two ways, either by decorating the fibres with functional payloads or by insertion of functional payloads into the peptide sequence, and that the resulting materials exhibit biological activity. We also demonstrate that the superstructure morphology of a self-assembled β3-peptide, can be tuned to yield a range of morphologies by different solvents. 1. Del Borgo MP, Mechler AI, Traore D, Forsyth C, Wilce JA, Wilce MCJ, Aguilar MI & Perlmutter P, ‘Supramolecular Self-Assembly of N-Acetyl capped β-Peptides Leads to Nano-to Macroscale Fibre Formation’. Angewandte Chemie Int Ed. 2013, 52 8266-. 2. Seoudi RS, Del Borgo MP, et al, Hierarchical morphology of a self-assembling tri-β3 peptide controlled by solvent”. New J Chem. 2015, 39, 3280.

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