Design peptide scaffolds for regenerative medicine.

Abstract

Regenerative and reparative medicine require two key complementary ingredients: the biological scaffolds and stem cells, both embryonic and adult stem cells. Designs of new scaffolds at the molecular level have become increasingly important for such an endeavor. New technology through molecular self-assembly as a fabrication tool will become integral part of new medicine in the coming years. We are inspired from nature through understanding the molecular self-assembly phenomena. Self-assembly phenomena are ubiquitous in nature. The two basic elements in molecular self-assembly are chemical complementarity and structural compatibility, through weak and noncovalent interactions. We have defined the path to understand these principles. Several self-assembling peptide systems have been developed for regenerative medicine including “molecular Lego” forming a nanofiber scaffold hydrogel. “molecular carpet” for surface biological engineering; and peptide nanotubes and nanovesicles, or “molecular capsule” for protein and gene deliveries. These self-assembling peptide systems are simple, versatile and easy to produce for large scale. These self-assembly peptide systems represent a significant advance in the molecular engineering of scaffolds for regenerative medicine.