Structures, function and applications of amphiphilic peptides

Major recent advances: Amphiphilic peptides, in other words, peptides that contain hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions along their lengths, have been molecularly designed and exploited in various ways. Most notable advancements in the past few years are their proposed use for scaffolds for nanometer structures such as molecular wires and mineralization of hydroxyapatite crystals in a particular orientation. Our group has also designed a new class of short and simple surfactant-like peptides that self-assemble into well-defined nanotubes and nanovesicles.