IRG 1: Peptide Active Materials (PAMs)
Motivation and Impact
Harnessing the immense polyaminoacid complexity of nature and beyond without billions of years of evolution
Nature Inspired Materials
MOTIVATION:
Life is possible due to proteins: polyaminoacid macromolecules with exquisite folded nanostructure producing specific function that is encoded in the amino acid sequence.
KEY CHALLENGE:
Restricted toolbox of natural or mutated protein structures limits design of non-natural materials.
VISION:
Computational design to realize synthetic peptides that fold and assemble into rigid, protein-like building blocks to produce designed Nanostructure (Aim 1), Motion (Aim 2), and Simple Machines (Aim 3).
![Polymers Saven, C. Kloxin, Pochan, and coworkers, “Polymers with controlled assembly and rigidity made with click-functional peptide bundles,” Nature 574 (2019): 658-662](https://mrsec.udel.edu/files/2020/09/Polymers.jpg)
Saven, C. Kloxin, Pochan, and coworkers, “Polymers with controlled assembly and rigidity made with click-functional peptide bundles,” Nature 574 (2019): 658-662