Approaches to Engineering Self-Assembling Peptide Filaments for Protein Binding and Purification

Unmet Need
Peptide amphiphiles (PA) are engineered biomaterials that can self-assemble into nanostructures with specific functions, such as binding to biomarkers for a variety of diseases, binding to specific proteins for purification purposes, or for binding to location specific regions for locally administering drugs. Most PAs currently synthesized use a small portion of a larger protein, a peptide, to mimic the shape and structure of a protein. For the use of PA for antibody binding, the PA needs to mimic the protein’s helical structure, which can be difficult to achieve in peptides. Peptide amphiphiles used for antibody binding can be used in many biomedical applications.

Technology Overview
The inventors at Johns Hopkins University have developed a method to synthesize PAs with a helical structure and have classified the tuning parameters for the transition between a helical structure and the, more typical, sheet-like structure. The helical structure is crucial for the function of the PAs bioactive epitope, which is used for binding antibodies. It opens the doors for epitopes that could not previously be used, and makes a way for more effective PAs to be used in protein purification, drug delivery, and diagnostics.


Stage of Development
The prototype of a peptide amphiphile with a helical structure has been synthesized.

Publications
Li, Y., et. Al., Biomacromolecules 2017, 18, 11, 3611-3620
 

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