PhD

dissertationThe use of ?-sheets as building blocks for biomaterials is already firmly established. In particular, self-assembled ?-sheet peptides are promising for engineering new fibrous nanostructures and hydrogels. Peptide-synthetic polymer hybrids are especially attractive since they combine the advantages of biomolecular recognition and functional properties of peptides with the low cost and easy fabrication of polymers. Significant developments in the area have included ?-sheet fibrillar networks, and selfassembled hybrid hydrogels, which add further control and utility to these systems. The studies described in this dissertation dealt with the design and evaluation of novel nanofibrous and hydrogel materials based on poly(HPMA)-?-sheet copolymers and their application as scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. In the first part of this research, the effect of conjugating poly(HPMA) to a ?-sheet peptide via thiol-maleimide chemistry was estimated. The ability of the peptide to adopt a ?-sheet conformation could be imposed in the hybrid at basic pH, through electrostatic interactions between the oppositely charged amino acid residues in the sequence. Hierarchically organized structures, such as micrometer long fibrils, were obtained. In the second part, formation of fibril-like nanostructures was demonstrated for ?-sheet peptides conjugated as grafts to poly(HPMA)