title: Nanostructured films from hierarchical self-assembly of amyloidogenic proteins.
abstract: In nature, sophisticated functional materials are created through hierarchical self-assembly of simple nanoscale motifs. In the laboratory, much progress has been made in the controlled assembly of molecules into one-, two- and three-dimensional artificial nanostructures, but bridging from the nanoscale to the macroscale to create useful macroscopic materials remains a challenge. Here we show a scalable self-assembly approach to making free-standing films from amyloid protein fibrils. The films were well ordered and highly rigid, with a Young's modulus of up to 5-7 GPa, which is comparable to the highest values for proteinaceous materials found in nature. We show that the self-organizing protein scaffolds can align otherwise unstructured components (such as fluorophores) within the macroscopic films. Multiscale self-assembly that relies on highly specific biomolecular interactions is an attractive path for realizing new multifunctional materials built from the bottom up.
authors.affiliation: Nanoscience Centre, J J Thomson Avenue, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FF, UK.
authors.forename: Tuomas P J
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Knowles
authors.forename: Tomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Oppenheim
authors.forename: Alexander K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Buell
authors.forename: Dimitri Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Chirgadze
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Welland
mesh_terms: D000682:Amyloid / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D000682:Amyloid; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D011506:Proteins