CM Seminar at ICTP - Monday 9 November at 11:00 Euler Lecture Hall LB

[Condensed Matter Section]

Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics Section
CHEMICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR
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MONDAY, 9 NOVEMBER, at 11:00 hrs.

Euler Lecture Hall, ICTP Leonardo Building, Terrace Level


Silvia MARCHESAN
Universityof Trieste, Dept. of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences


"Twists of Chirality for the Self-Assembly of Short Peptide Superstructures"


Abstract:__

Self-assembly of small molecules into hydrogels is a hot topic of 
research that still presents many unanswered questions. In particular, 
tripeptides are very appealing building blocks that are simple to 
prepare and can encode powerful biological messages. However, prediction 
of their self-assembly behaviour is still a very challenging objective. 
Amongst the different tools that can be used to drive self-organisation, 
appropriate choice of chirality to fine-tune tripeptide molecular shape 
is an attractive yet mostly unexplored approach. A different 
configuration at one stereocenter of simple hydrophobic sequences is 
sufficient to determine dramatic effects at macroscopic level (i.e., 
leading or not to a hydrogel within seconds). Importantly, specific 
nanostructure morphologies (e.g., nanotapes, twisted fibers) can be 
achieved through subtle molecular variations. The resulting assemblies 
hold high potential as biomaterials, as shown by their performance /in 
vitro/. This approach opens a number of innovative avenues, for example, 
through co-assembly with other molecules that actively participate in 
the superstructure.