Lipid-Peptide Co-Assemblies for Multifunctional Biointerfaces

Amphiphilic lipids and peptides can self-assemble to form a diversity of structures with functionality on multiple length scales. Directing the self-assembly and structure formation provides opportunities for the design of functional biointerfaces for various applications including medical therapies and food products.[1]

This presentation demonstrates the co-assembly of selected food lipids with peptides into functional biointerfaces that kill bacteria and promote wound healing.[2] We further show that external variables including pH, humidity, enzymes and temperature can be used to tailor the biointerface morphology and trigger the antibacterial activity on demand.[3,4,5] These materials are sustainable, biodegradable and food grade. The mechanisms at play underlying the self-assembly structure formation and its dynamic transformations with external triggers are studied using highly contemporary biophysical and computational methods including in situ time-resolved synchrotron SAXS and GISAXS, bio-AFM, cryo-TEM and online confocal Raman microscopy. Additional antibacterial assays on a broad range of both gram negative and positive bacteria strains, together with toxicity assays bridge the colloidal structure and composition to the biological activity.

The detailed insights into dynamic self-assembly in bio-mimetic materials and their characterisation on multiple length scales may provide essential knowledge for the comprehensive design of functional biointerfaces in form of nanoparticles and coatings.

1. Salentinig S., Curr. Opin. Coll. Interf. Sci. 2019, 39, 190-201.
2. Zabara M., et al. Adv. Funct. Mat., 2019, 29, 1904007.
3. Gontsarik M., et al. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2019, 2821-2829.
4. Gontsarik M., et al. Biomat. Sci. 2018, 6, 803-812.
5. Salentinig S., et al. Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2018, 20, 21903-21909.