posted on 2023-06-08, 07:19authored byAndrew M Smith, Steve F A Acquah, Neil Bone, Harold W Kroto, Maxim G Ryadnov, Marryat S P Stevens, David R M Walton, Derek N Woolfson
Bioinspiration: Polar assembly (a feature of many natural protein-based fibrous structures, such as actin, microtubules, intermediate filaments, and collagens) is demonstrated in a straightforward, synthetic, peptide-based fiber system of de novo design (see false-color confocal-microscope image of fibers). This finding opens up possibilities for engineering self-assembling soft materials from the bottom up and with nano-to-microscale precision.
HK jointly supervised SA with DW and contributed to the experimental design led by and in collaboraton with DW (now at Bristol) and co-authored the paper, all authors are from Sussex. First self asembly of protein fibres based on coiled coli motifs