1. Polar Assembly in a Designed Protein Fiber
- Author
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Andrew M. Smith, Maxim G. Ryadnov, Marryat S. P. Stevens, Steve F. A. Acquah, David R. M. Walton, Harold W. Kroto, Derek N. Woolfson, and Neil Bone
- Subjects
Models, Molecular ,Nanostructure ,Materials science ,Molecular Sequence Data ,Protein design ,Proteins ,Nanotechnology ,General Chemistry ,Catalysis ,Nanostructures ,Microtubule ,Mutation ,Polar ,Amino Acid Sequence ,Self-assembly ,Fiber ,Peptides ,Intermediate filament ,Actin - Abstract
Bioinspiration: Polar assembly (a feature of many natural protein-based fibrous structures, such as actin, microtubules, intermediate filaments, and collagens) is demonstrated in a straightforward, synthetic, peptide-based fiber system of de novo design (see false-color confocal-microscope image of fibers). This finding opens up possibilities for engineering self-assembling soft materials from the bottom up and with nano-to-microscale precision.
- Published
- 2005
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