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Updated: Jan 1, 2026

Production of Nanofibrillar Patterned Collagen for Tissue Engineering
Published on: September 20, 2024
Collagen-Inspired Self-Assembly of Twisted Filaments
Martin J Falk1, Amy Duwel2, Lucy J Colwell3
1Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Abstract:
Collagen consists of three peptides twisted together through a periodic array of hydrogen bonds. Here we use this as inspiration to find design rules for programmed specific interactions for self-assembling synthetic collagenlike triple helices, starting from disordered configurations. The assembly generically nucleates defects in the triple helix, the characteristics of which can be manipulated by spatially varying the enthalpy of helix formation. Defect formation slows assembly, evoking kinetic pathologies that have been observed to mutations in the primary collagen amino acid sequence. The controlled formation and interaction between defects gives a route for hierarchical self-assembly of bundles of twisted filaments.
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