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Where physics meets chemistry meets biology for fundamental soft matter research.
Emerging Area
Soft Matter, 2006, 2, 177 - 181, DOI: 10.1039/b516805h
Biomimetic self-assembled nanofibers
Ho-Wook Jun, Sergey E. Paramonov and Jeffrey D. Hartgerink
Peptide-amphiphiles, peptides to which a non-peptidic hydrophobic moiety has been added to the N or C terminal end, have been demonstrated to be a versatile method for simultaneously controlling nanostructure and chemical functionality. These amphiphiles are able to self-assemble, in a controlled fashion, into nanofibers with diameter between 6–10 nm and with length in excess of 1000 nm. At proper concentration these nanofibers form a viscoelastic gel capable of entrapping living cells and eliciting specific responses from them. Because of the flexibility of the display of chemical functionality on a controlled nanofibrous scaffold, applications for peptide-amphiphiles have been proposed including heterogeneous catalysis, nanoelectronics, drug delivery, and tissue engineering.
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