Design of Nanostructured Biological Materials Through Self-Assembly of Peptides and Proteins

摘要

Introduction Self-assembly can be defined as the spontaneous organization of individual components into an ordered structure without human intervention. The key elements of molecular self-assembly are complementarity in shape among the individual components and weak, non-covalent interactions. Molecular self-assembly as a fabrication tool will have a significant impact in the coming decades. Engineering principles for micro- and nano-fabrication can be learned by understanding molecular self-assembly phenomena in nature. Numerous self-assembling systems have already been developed, ranging from block copolymers and surfactant-like materials to scaffolds for three-dimensional (3D) cell culture, DNA-based structures and models to study protein folding and protein conformational disease.