Switch-peptides to trigger the peptide guided assembly of poly(ethylene oxide)-peptide conjugates into tape structures

A strong β-sheet forming peptide was conjugated to PEO and utilized to guide the structure formation process toward well-defined, tape-like structures with millimeters in length, about 2 μm width, and ∼50 nm height. The aggregation tendency of the peptide was temporarily suppressed for ease of synthesis by the integration of multiple switch-peptide defect segments into the peptide backbone. A subsequent rearrangement in the defects re-establishes the native peptide backbone and triggers the assembly by switching the aggregation properties on. Copyright © 2006 American Chemical Society.