A silk purse from a sow's ear-bioinspired materials based on α-helical coiled coils

This past few years have heralded remarkable times for intermediate filaments with new revelations of their structural properties that has included the first crystallographic-based model of vimentin to build on the experimental data of intra-filament interactions determined by chemical cross-linking. Now with these and other advances on their assembly, their biomechanical and their cell biological properties outlined in this review, the exploitation of the biomechanical and structural properties of intermediate filaments, their nanocomposites and biomimetic derivatives in the biomedical and private sectors has started.