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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Formation of Ordered Biomolecular Structures by the Self-assembly of Short Peptides
Published on: November 21, 2013
Construction of helical nanofibers from self-assembling pseudopeptide building blocks: modulating the handedness and
Samit Guha1, Michael G B Drew, Arindam Banerjee
1Biological Chemistry, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata, India.
Abstract:
Helical nanofibers are successfully constructed from suitable self-assembling pseudopeptide-based molecular building blocks. The handedness of these nanofibers can be reversed by using mirror-imaged pseudopeptide-based building blocks. Straight nanofibers are also constructed by modulating the molecular and supramolecular structures by the proper choice of the stereochemical nature of the molecular scaffolds. This study demonstrates that molecular structure and chirality are not the only determining factors for tuning the morphology and chirality of nanostructures; the nature of the supramolecular structures formed from the corresponding molecular scaffolds also plays a key role in dictating the shape and chirality of nanostructures. Helical nanofibers are suitable templates for fabricating dipeptide-capped gold nanoparticles, indicating a possible use of these nanofibers in the construction of arrays of gold nanoparticles.
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