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Updated: May 29, 2026

Microengineering 3D Collagen Hydrogels with Long-Range Fiber Alignment
Published on: September 7, 2022
Computational design of a collagen A:B:C-type heterotrimer
Fei Xu1, Sohail Zahid, Teresita Silva
1Department of Biochemistry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, UMDNJ and the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, United States.
Abstract:
We have successfully designed an A:B:C collagen peptide heterotrimer using an automated computational approach. The algorithm maximizes the energy gap between the target and competing misfolded states while enforcing a minimum target stability. Circular dichroism (CD) measurements confirm that all three peptides are required to form a stable, structured triple helix. This study highlights the power of automated computational design, providing model systems to probe the biophysics of collagen assembly and developing general methods for the design of fibrous proteins.
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