Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Chirality in Nature02:30

Chirality in Nature

Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid. The...
Chirality02:25

Chirality

Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Prochirality02:05

Prochirality

The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers02:25

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules that possess multiple chiral centers can afford a large number of stereoisomers. For instance, while some molecules like 2-butanol have one chiral center, defined as a tetrahedral carbon atom with four different substituents attached, several molecules like butane-2,3-diol have multiple chiral centers. A simple formula to predict the number of stereoisomers possible for a molecule with n chiral centers is 2n. However, there can be a lower number where some of the stereoisomers are...
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur02:30

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
Amyloid Fibrils03:03

Amyloid Fibrils

Amyloid fibrils are aggregates of misfolded proteins.  Under most circumstances, misfolded proteins are either refolded by chaperone proteins or degraded by the proteasome. However, in the case of a mutation or a disease, these proteins can accumulate to form large clusters and often further assemble to form elongated fibers, called fibrils. 
Amyloid deposits were observed as early as 1639 in the liver and the spleen.   In 1854, Rudolph Virchow performed iodine staining, normally used to...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Enantioselective Crystal Growth Induced by Mesoscopic Helical Platforms.

Chirality·2026
Same author

Tailoring the major groove of DNA mimic foldamers.

Chemical science·2026
Same author

Reproducible chiroptical activity from aggregated chiral thienopyrroledione-fluorene π‑conjugated polymers.

Science and technology of advanced materials·2026
Same author

Correction: Structure-based design of an aromatic helical foldamer-protein interface.

Chemical science·2026
Same author

Helical Aromatic Oligoamide Macrocycle Incorporated with a Ferrocene Unit for Encapsulation and Chirality Signaling of Zwitterionic Proline.

Organic letters·2026
Same author

Landing-Energy-Controlled Surface Conformation of Electrosprayed Foldamer Molecules on Au(111).

ACS nano·2026

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 26, 2026

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
09:22

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives

Published on: February 7, 2017

Chirality Effects in Self-assembled Fibrillar Networks.

Aurélie Brizard1, Reiko Oda, Ivan Huc

  • 1Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie, 2 rue Robert Escarpit, 33607, Pessac, France.

Topics in Current Chemistry
|December 14, 2011
PubMed
Summary

Chirality is crucial for self-assembled fibrillar networks and solvent gelation. Molecular structure and symmetry influence fiber formation, leading to applications in templating and chiral material synthesis.

More Related Videos

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality
08:07

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

Formation of Ordered Biomolecular Structures by the Self-assembly of Short Peptides
07:26

Formation of Ordered Biomolecular Structures by the Self-assembly of Short Peptides

Published on: November 21, 2013

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 26, 2026

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
09:22

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives

Published on: February 7, 2017

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality
08:07

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

Formation of Ordered Biomolecular Structures by the Self-assembly of Short Peptides
07:26

Formation of Ordered Biomolecular Structures by the Self-assembly of Short Peptides

Published on: November 21, 2013

Area of Science:

  • Supramolecular Chemistry
  • Materials Science
  • Physical Chemistry

Background:

  • Chirality is intrinsically linked to the formation and stability of self-assembled fibrillar networks (SAFINs).
  • The macroscopic property of thermoreversible gelation is often dependent on the chirality of small molecule gelators.
  • Stereogenic centers and their configurations critically influence a molecule's gelation ability.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the role of molecular chirality in the formation and properties of self-assembled fibrillar networks.
  • To understand the thermodynamic and kinetic factors contributing to chirality-driven fiber growth.
  • To highlight the applications of chiral SAFINs and the challenges in characterizing their molecular arrangements.

Main Methods:

  • Symmetry considerations of chiral molecular packing.
  • Microscopic techniques for observing chiral fiber morphologies.
  • Chiroptical spectroscopy (e.g., circular dichroism) for monitoring aggregation.
  • Multi-technique approaches for determining chiral molecular arrangements.

Main Results:

  • Chirality generally favors fiber growth in SAFINs due to thermodynamic and kinetic factors.
  • Molecular chirality can manifest as twisted or coiled fiber structures at the nanoscale.
  • Chiral fiber morphologies serve as templates for helical protein crystallization and chiral inorganic replicas.
  • Chiroptical properties provide insights into aggregation and molecular packing.

Conclusions:

  • Molecular chirality plays a fundamental role in the self-assembly of fibrillar networks and their gelation properties.
  • The observed chiral morphologies offer unique opportunities for advanced applications in materials science and biotechnology.
  • Despite advancements, detailed characterization of chiral molecular arrangements within these fibers remains a significant challenge requiring sophisticated analytical methods.