Functional materials composed of supramolecular fibrils

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Department of Chemistry, 2016.Peptide self-assembly is often associated with various pathologies such as Alzheimer’s Diseases, Type-II Diabetes, and Parkinson’s Disease. However, not all self-assembly leads to disease. Regulated assembly often occurs in Nature and serves important biological functions. Researchers have sought to emulate Nature and create supramolecular materials derived from self-assembling peptides. Specifically, small, amphipathic, β-sheet forming peptides have been used to create functional materials. These peptides typically have alternating hydrophobic and hydrophilic amino acids, and upon dilution in water will rapidly assemble into nanometer long fibrils. Fibrils formed from these peptides are often soluble in water and can often be assembled in the presence of similar peptides functionalized with specific molecules to create materials that display multiple copies of the molecule. Using this technique, we have sought to create functional materials to modulate HIV-1 infectivity, create multivalent displays of functional proteins, and use these peptides in systems that gelate upon the addition of a biological ligand