Synthesis and Evaluation of Self-Assembled Nanostructures of Peptide-π Chromophore Conjugates

• Published in: Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) Vol. 1777; p. 209
• Main Authors: Kale, Tejaswini S, Tovar, John D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 2018
• Subjects: 1-D nanostructure; Self-assembly; Peptide-π conjugates; Peptides; Stimuli sensitive self-assembly
• ISSN: 1940-6029
• DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7811-3_12

Peptides provide a biomolecular scaffold for solubilizing and assembling π-conjugated molecules in aqueous media. The properties of such peptide-π chromophore conjugates can be manipulated by varying the constituent amino acid residues in the peptide backbone as well as the chromophore moieties. Such a precise handle on molecular structure leads to molecules with diverse macromolecular and material properties. We developed a versatile synthetic protocol that leads to a wide range of peptide-π chromophore conjugates in which the chromophores are covalently attached to the peptide backbone such that the chromophore is flanked by two peptide chains. This "trimer" structure lends interesting self-assembly properties to these materials which may be useful for a plethora of biological applications.