Development of nano- and bio-materials using nanofibers fabricated from self-assembling peptides

Abstract

Self-assembling peptides have attracted much attention as nano- and bio-materials because they have promising properties such as flexible molecular design and biocompatibility. We have developed self-assembling peptides that can form various nanostructures including fibers in aqueous media, and applied them to nano/biomaterials. Functionalization of self-assembling peptides and their assembled-nanostructures was successfully achieved by chemical modification methods and molecular recognition of anchor molecules for assembled nanostructures. In particular, specific anchor peptides for assembled nanostructures enabled arranging proteins along nanofibers to yield unique structures of nanofibers. Furthermore, calcium ionresponsive hydrogel materials were constructed by chemical modification of a self-assembling peptide. These hydrogel materials allowed culturing various cells by promoting cell adhesion and differentiation. We report that our original self-assembling peptides functionalized by combination of chemical modification and molecular recognition are useful to develop highly functional nano- and bio-materials.