Article
Polymer Science
James P. Warren, Matthew P. Culbert, Danielle E. Miles, Steven Maude, Ruth K. Wilcox, Paul A. Beales
Summary: Self-assembling peptides are a versatile biomaterial that can form self-supporting hydrogels. Balancing attractive and repulsive forces through peptide charge and hydrogen bonding is crucial for successful hydrogel formation. A net peptide charge of +/-2 and modulating hydrogen bonding can optimize the assembly and viscoelastic properties of the hydrogel. These findings demonstrate the potential of controlling self-assembly mechanisms to create structures with desired properties.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Limin Zhang, Mengzhen Li, Minxuan Wang, Lingyun Li, Mingmei Guo, Yubin Ke, Peng Zhou, Weizhi Wang
Summary: Bola-like peptides were obtained through de novo design and combinatorial chemical screening, resulting in assemblies with different tilt angles and active sites by regulating the solvent-accessible surface area of the peptide chain. The structure-activity relationship of the optimized peptide system was established and its ability to target a specific protein was demonstrated. This study successfully established the structure-function relationship of beta-sheet assemblies and has implications for the rational design of peptide assemblies with recognition abilities.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Nuria Mazo, Claudio D. Navo, Francesca Peccati, Jacopo Andreo, Cristina Airoldi, Gildas Goldsztejn, Pierre Carcabal, Imanol Usabiaga, Mariona Sodupe, Stefan Wuttke, Jesus H. Busto, Jesus M. Peregrina, Emilio J. Cocinero, Gonzalo Jimenez-Oses
Summary: This study presents the synthesis and characterization of peptides containing variations of the beta-amyloid hydrophobic core, as well as the use of experimental and computational techniques to investigate their properties in the gas phase, solid state, and aqueous solution. The introduction of a cyclic sulfamidate group effectively restricts and stabilizes the secondary structure of these hybrid peptides, maintaining this conformational bias in different environments. These peptides also exhibit moderate activity as beta-sheet breaker peptides, inhibiting the aggregation of beta-amyloid in vitro.
CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL
(2022)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Maithreyi Ramakrishnan, Alexander van Teijlingen, Tell Tuttle, R. V. Ulijn
Summary: Interest in peptide-based supramolecular materials has grown extensively since the 1980s and the application of computational methods has paralleled this. Computational methods contribute to the understanding of experimental observations and inform the design of new supramolecular systems. Recent advancements in methodology development have shown that the integration between experiment and computation in this field is becoming seamless.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Elsa Genove, Nausika Betriu, Carlos E. Semino
Summary: This study investigates the protease sensitivity of the self-assembling peptide RAD16-I, and demonstrates that it can be enzymatically degraded into short peptide sequences and further degraded into single amino acids, making it suitable for applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Article
Chemistry, Organic
Arianna Sinibaldi, Francesca Della Penna, Marco Ponzetti, Francesco Fini, Silvia Marchesan, Andrea Baschieri, Fabio Pesciaioli, Armando Carlone
Summary: Self-assembling minimalistic peptides with an organocatalytic moiety were designed and controlled by external intervention to accelerate activation. The accelerated catalysis was demonstrated in a Michael benchmark reaction.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
(2021)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Nino Lauber, Christoph Flamm, Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo
Summary: In the past two decades, there has been increased scientific attention on metabolism in relation to the systems view on life and its emergence from complex chemistry. However, there has been a lack of theoretical discussion on the nature and role of metabolism in biogenesis. This critical review aims to encourage further investigations on metabolism, particularly in the context of life's origin, presenting a contrast between minimal metabolism and previous top-down conceptions.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Muneyuki Matsuo, Kensuke Kurihara
Summary: The study presents a proliferating peptide-based coacervate droplet system using synthesised amino acid thioesters as monomers, which can concentrate RNA and lipids, and undergo a growth-division cycle through autocatalytic self-reproduction. This system provides experimental constructs for origins-of-life research and suggests new directions in peptide-based materials development.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Biophysics
Helen Greenwood Hansma
Summary: Reproducible imaging of DNA by atomic force microscopy played a crucial role in the development of DNA nanotechnology and provided insights into the origin of life. Mica and montmorillonite served as substrates in the study of life's origins, with mica being a more likely habitat than montmorillonite. The mechanical energy of mica sheets may have preceded chemical energy in driving early prebiotic processes.
BIOPHYSICAL JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Biophysics
Roja Hadianamrei, Mhd Anas Tomeh, Stephen Brown, Jiqian Wang, Xiubo Zhao
Summary: This study focused on the development and characterization of short cationic amphiphilic beta-sheet forming anticancer peptides. The peptides exhibited selective anticancer activity influenced by their surface activity and secondary structure in hydrophobic surfaces, leading to disruption of mitochondrial membranes and apoptosis. Insights gained from the study can be used to design new ACPs with improved anticancer activity and lower toxicity against normal cells.
COLLOIDS AND SURFACES B-BIOINTERFACES
(2022)
Review
Engineering, Biomedical
Conor L. O'Neill, Paresh C. Shrimali, Zoe E. Clapacs, Megan A. Files, Jai S. Rudra
Summary: Self-assembling peptide, peptidomimetic, and protein-based biomaterials offer a solution to the limitations of current vaccines, providing modularity, multivalency, and biocompatibility to enhance humoral and cellular responses. Their design flexibility allows for tailored vaccines and immunotherapies for specific disease models, while also serving as a generalizable platform for preventing or treating various infectious and non-infectious diseases.
ACTA BIOMATERIALIA
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Theory & Methods
Nazmus Saquib, Chandra Krintz, Rich Wolski
Summary: This work investigates the integration of replicated versioned data structures and append-only distributed storage systems to enhance system availability and scalability. The approach of replicating, persisting, and versioning program data structures enables failure recovery and system debugging, while also improving the performance in applications with high volumes of temporal queries. The experiments provide empirical evaluation of the overheads associated with versioning and storage persistence, as well as demonstrate the scalability of this approach.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PARALLEL AND DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Michele Larocca, Giuseppe Floresta, Agostino Cilibrizzi
Summary: The folding process is driven by main mechanical forces generated from specific chemical interactions among residues of an amino acid chain. A new parameter, folding factor, has been reported for calculating dihedral angle values in (poly)peptides. Accurate rules for defining degrees of freedom and folding factors have not been reported so far.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR STRUCTURE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
S. Furkan Ozturk, Dimitar D. Sasselov
Summary: The origins of biological homochirality on early Earth are still unknown, but this study proposes a hypothesis regarding this phenomenon. The authors suggest that shallow closed-basin lakes on early Earth, which are expected to contain significant sedimentary magnetite deposits, could have been a plausible prebiotic environment. They hypothesize that ultraviolet (200-300 nm) irradiation of magnetite deposits could generate hydrated spin-polarized electrons that induce enantioselective prebiotic chemistry, thereby facilitating the synthesis of life's building blocks.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Goutam Ghosh, Ranajit Barman, Anurag Mukherjee, Uttam Ghosh, Suhrit Ghosh, Gustavo Fernandez
Summary: This study reports the diverse morphological and conformational versatility of a biologically active peptide (PEP-1), which can form up to six distinct nanostructures and up to four different secondary structures through subtle modulation in pH, concentration, and temperature. PEP-1 also shows high biocompatibility, low hemolytic activity, and marked antibacterial activity, making it a promising candidate for multiple bio-applications.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2022)
Article
Biophysics
Yara N. Dahdal, Yoram Oren, Dietmar Schwahn, Vitaliy Pipich, Moshe Herzberg, Wang Ying, Roni Kasher, Hanna Rapaport
COLLOIDS AND SURFACES B-BIOINTERFACES
(2016)
Article
Polymer Science
Y. N. Dahdal, V. Pipich, H. Rapaport, Y. Oren, R. Kasher, D. Schwahn
Article
Materials Science, Biomaterials
Anna Gitelman Povimonsky, Hanna Rapaport
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY B
(2017)
Article
Biophysics
Ifat Cohen-Erez, Hanna Rapaport
COLLOIDS AND SURFACES B-BIOINTERFACES
(2018)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Avigail Baruch Leshem, Sivan Isaacs, Sachin K. Srivastava, Ibrahim Abdulhalim, Ariel Kushmaro, Hanna Rapaport
JOURNAL OF COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE
(2018)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Hodaya Green, Guy Ochbaum, Anna Gitelman-Povimonsky, Ronit Bitton, Hanna Rapaport
Article
Polymer Science
Ifat Cohen-Erez, Noa Harduf, Hanna Rapaport
POLYMERS FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES
(2019)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Ifat Cohen-Erez, Carol Issacson, Yael Lavi, Ruthy Shaco-Levy, Jammi Milam, Brenda Laster, Levi A. Gheber, Hanna Rapaport
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2019)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Elad Arad, Hodaya Green, Raz Jelinek, Hanna Rapaport
JOURNAL OF COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE
(2020)
Article
Polymer Science
Topaz Levi, Gal Yosefi, Ronit Bitton, Hanna Rapaport
Summary: This article presents the development of hierarchically ordered planar and spherical macroscopic membranes constructed by an amphiphilic and cationic beta-sheet peptide that spontaneously assembles with the negatively charged alginate biopolymer. The suitability of these membranes as substrates for cell culture applications was examined, and the results demonstrate their stability and potential use in studying cancer cells and cell therapies.
POLYMERS FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Elad Arad, Gal Yosefi, Sofiya Kolusheva, Ronit Bitton, Hanna Rapaport, Raz Jelinek
Summary: Glucagon amyloid fibrils have been found to catalyze important biological reactions, including dephosphorylation of ATP. The catalytic activity is located in an enzymatic pocket-like triad formed on the surface of the glucagon fibrils.
Article
Materials Science, Biomaterials
Shahar Dahan, Polina Aibinder, Boris Khalfin, Jacob Moran-Gilad, Hanna Rapaport
Summary: The resistance of pathogenic bacteria to conventional antibiotics has led to the development of new antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which can be used as topical treatments for skin infection and wound regeneration. In this study, FKF hydrogels were combined with gelatin to improve their biocompatibility. The hybrid hydrogels showed enhanced antimicrobial activity and could serve as scaffolds for tissue regeneration.
ACS BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Polymer Science
Ifat Cohen-Erez, Noa Harduf, Hanna Rapaport
POLYMERS FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES
(2019)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Elad Arad, Susanta Kumar Bhunia, Jurgen Jopp, Sofiya Kolusheva, Hanna Rapaport, Raz Jelinek
ADVANCED THERAPEUTICS
(2018)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Elad Arad, Ravit Malishev, Hanna Rapaport, Raz Jelinek
