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Updated: Oct 19, 2025

Formation of Ordered Biomolecular Structures by the Self-assembly of Short Peptides
Published on: November 21, 2013
Phosphobisaromatic motifs enable rapid enzymatic self-assembly and hydrogelation of short peptides
Meihui Yi1, Jiaqi Guo1, Hongjian He1
1Department of Chemistry, Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA, 02453, USA. bxu@brandeis.edu.
Abstract:
Enzyme-instructed self-assembly (EISA) and hydrogelation is a versatile approach for generating soft materials. Most of the substrates for alkaline phosphatase catalysed EISA utilize phosphotyrosine (pTyr) as the enzymatic trigger for EISA and hydrogelation. Here we show the first example of phosphonaphthyl (pNP) and phosphobiphenyl (pBP) motifs acting as faster enzymatic triggers than phosphotyrosine for EISA and hydrogelation. This work illustrates novel enzyme triggers for rapid enzymatic self-assembly and hydrogelation.
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