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Updated: May 3, 2026

Formation of Ordered Biomolecular Structures by the Self-assembly of Short Peptides
Published on: November 21, 2013
Supramolecular Polymers Formed by ABC Miktoarm Star Peptides
Yi-An Lin1, Yu-Chuan Ou2, Andrew G Cheetham1
1Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States ; Institute for NanoBioTechnology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States.
None:
We report here the design and synthesis of an ABC miktoarm star peptide connecting through a lysine junction a short peptide sequence and two hydrophobic but immiscible blocks (a hydrocarbon and a fluorocarbon). The designed molecule can self-assemble into one-dimensional nanostructures with a great diversity of kinetically evolving morphologies in aqueous solution, while molecules that contain only one of the two hydrophobic blocks form structurally similar filaments. We believe the rich assembly behavior and morphological evolution are a direct reflection of the molecular frustration present within the filament core as a result of the in-compatibility of the fluorocarbon and hydrocarbon segments. Our finding opens new opportunities for creating complex supramolecular polymers through the architecture design of small molecular building units.
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