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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Synthesis of an Intein-mediated Artificial Protein Hydrogel
Published on: January 27, 2014
Engineering Protein-Clay Nanosheets Composite Hydrogels with Designed Arginine-Rich Proteins
Shanshan Lv1,2, Tianyu Duan1, Hongbin Li1
1Department of Chemistry , The University of British Columbia , Vancouver , BC V6T 1Z1 , Canada.
Abstract:
Clay nanosheets (CNSs) have been widely used in the design of nanocomposite biomaterials. CNSs display a disk-like morphology with strong negatively charged surfaces. It has been shown that guanidinium-containing molecules can bind CNSs through noncovalent salt-bridge interactions and thus serve as "molecular glues" for CNSs. Making use of the guanidinium side chain in arginine, here, we designed novel arginine-rich elastomeric proteins to engineer protein-CNS nanocomposite hydrogels. Our results showed that these arginine-rich proteins can interact with CNSs effectively and can cross-link CNSs into hydrogels. Rheological measurements showed that mechanical properties of the resultant hydrogels depended on the arginine content in the arginine-rich proteins as well as CNS/protein concentration. Compared with hydrogels constructed from CNSs or proteins alone, the novel protein-CNS nanocomposite hydrogels show much improved mechanical properties. Our work opens up a new avenue to engineer functional protein hydrogels for various applications.
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