2024 AIChE Annual Meeting
(461g) Engineering Peptide and Protein Nanostructures with Guidance from Solid-State NMR
Author
Anant Paravastu - Presenter, Georgia Institute of Technology
We use solid-state NMR methodologies developed for structural biology to investigate assemblies of designer peptide and peptoids. These assemblies, which mostly resemble amyloid-like cross-β structures or α-helical coiled coils, have been used for antigen presentation, extracellular matrix mimicry, and drug delivery. Rational design has made it possible to incorporate functional domains on nanofiber surfaces, modulate assembly pathways, and control assembly through molecular recognition. For known peptide assemblies, we have discovered several unexpected behaviors, including unexpected molecular structures, effects of bio-active domains on assembly pathways, a helix-to-sheet transformation, trans-to-cis backbone amide bond isomerization. Integrating computational design with what we have learned from investigating structures of known assemblies, we have recently performed increasingly complex rational design of better-controlled nanostructures.