Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering Spring Seminar Series: Rain Ulijn

Description

[Rain Ulijn]https://asrc.gc.cuny.edu/people/rein-ulijn/), director of the Nanoscience Initiative, ASRC Sensor CAT, and NanoBioNYC Program at the CUNY Advanced Research Center, will give a talk titled "Context-Dependence in Assembly Code for Supramolecular Peptide Materials and Systems" for the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Abstract:

Peptides have tremendous potential as building blocks of designer materials with wide-ranging applications, including those that nature never explored. The Ulijn lab is taking steps to making this vision a reality, not by copying biology, but by developing methodology for bottom-up design, discovery and evolution of functional materials and biofluids for a variety of applications. The talk will include our latest research in this area, focusing on the rich side-chain interaction space in short peptides to mimic biology's context-adaptive and flexible structures: (i) Supramolecular Peptide Dispersions: We have developed dispersions that undergo drying-induced phase separation, forming porous peptide microparticles capable of stabilizing proteins or small molecule payloads. (ii) Context-Adaptive Peptide Crystals: We are investigating peptide crystals that exhibit context-dependent actuation. (iii) Drug-Matched Peptide Excipients: We are designing peptide excipients that are tailored to enhance the bioavailability of specific drug molecules. (iv) Experimental Learning and Memory: We are exploring sequence-adaptive peptide mixtures to enable experimental learning and memory.

Our research collectively demonstrates the remarkable potential of peptides and dynamically exchanging peptide mixtures as designable and tunable nanomaterials for a wide range of applications in biomedicine and green nanotechnology.