Bioinspired Silicification Reveals Structural Detail in Self-Assembled Peptide Cages.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how molecules in self-assembled soft-matter nanostructures are organized is essential for improving the design of next-generation nanomaterials. Imaging these assemblies can be challenging and usually requires processing, e.g., staining or embedding, which can damage or obscure features. An alternative is to use bioinspired mineralization, mimicking how certain organisms use biomolecules to template mineral formation. Previously, we have reported the design and characterization of Self-Assembled peptide caGEs (SAGEs) formed from de novo peptide building blocks. In SAGEs, two complementary, 3-fold symmetric, peptide hubs combine to form a hexagonal lattice, which curves and closes to form SAGE nanoparticles. As hexagons alone cannot tile onto spheres, the network must also inc

SUBMITTER: Galloway JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5967840 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature