Self-Assembled Peptidic Nanostructures

Molecular recognition in biology requires appropriate conformational presentation of ligands and receptor binding sites. There has been great interest in design of materials with biological epitopes that can induce cellular events important in tissue regeneration. The use of self-assembly is particularly attractive because it can allow biomolecular scaffold formation in situ by delivering liquids containing the self-assembling molecules to a target tissue site. This book explores self-assembling peptide amphiphiles (PA) with various functional groups that assemble to form nanofiber networks in physiological media. The PA molecules were designed with a branched architecture to enhance recognition of bioactive epitopes on the surfaces of nanofibers. Biotinylated model branched PA systems for recognition of biotin by avidin on the periphery of the nanofibers were studied and the branched architecture enhanced the recognition of biotin by avidin possibly by changing the packing density of molecules in the nanofibers. Various PA molecules were synthesized with branched architectures for enhanced recognition of biological signals for cellular adhesion.