Life's diverse molecular functions are largely based on only a small number of highly conserved building blocks – the twenty canonical amino acids. These building blocks are chemically simple, but when they are organized in three-dimensional structures of tremendous complexity, new properties emerge. The talk will summarize our recent efforts in the directed discovery of functional nanoscale systems and materials based on these same amino acids, but that are not guided by copying or editing biological systems. We will discuss complementary approaches of searching the sequence space to explore sequence–structure relationships for assembly, reactivity and complexation, namely: (i) strategic editing of short peptide sequences; (ii) computational approaches to predicting and comparing assembly behaviors. These approaches give rise to guiding principles on controlling order/disorder, reactivity and, ultimately, humidity responsiveness by peptide sequence design.

Experimental and computational search strategies for function in the peptide sequence space

2019 Fall National Meeting

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