Rein V Ulijn
City University of New York, USA
Title: Supramolecular polymers based on short peptides: building on the building blocks of life
Biography
Biography: Rein V Ulijn
Abstract
The tremendous functionality of living systems is based on sequence-specific polymers of overwhelming complexity. It is increasingly clear that structure and function may be found in much simpler oligomers, such as peptides. We are exploring the use of short peptides as tunable building blocks for supramolecular materials with myriad applications in biomedicine and nanotechnology. To date, most self-assembling peptides have been designed by copying nature or have been discovered serendipitously. We will report progress on the development of design rules for self-assembly of very short peptides consisting of <5 amino acids by exploring the entire sequence space. This includes the use of coarse grained molecular dynamics simulations, and the use of experimental dynamic peptide libraries, which allow the short peptide sequence space to be searched and navigated. The second part of the talk will focus on the development of active (non-equilibrium) supramolecular nanostructures using chemically fueled catalytic peptide self-assembly. Applications of peptides as cell culture matrices, bio/electronic interfaces and drug delivery vehicles will also be discussed.