Exploration of Self-Assembly in Short Peptides for the Development of Useful Functional Materials

Abstract

The thesis on ‘Exploration of Self-Assembly in Short Peptides for the Development of Useful Functional Materials’ deals with the design of novel short peptides, studying their self assembly behaviour with the different non-covalent interactions, and exploring their possible applications in the field of peptide-based functional materials. Chapter 1 is a brief introduction on peptide-based nanomaterials and their various applications with sufficient literature review. Chapter 2 describes the development of a thixotropic hydrogel using the self-aggregation of a peptide amphiphile. Chapter 3 describes the successful utilization of the technique of peptide coassembly for the formulation of a functional peptide hydrogel for aiming localized drug-delivery through receptor mediated cellular internalization mechanisms. Chapter 4 deals in development of a multi-stimuli responsive cross-linked peptide polymer using different cross-linking methodologies, for attaining size-tunability property and controlled cell-proliferation. Chapter 5 deals in development of an artificial hydrolase. The work involves systematic design and immobilization of a hydrolase-like short peptide amphiphile on silica surfaces for enhancement of extent of catalysis, improvement of catalyst stability and increased stereoselectivity, compared to the micellar aggregates.