Supramolecular Self-Assembly of Engineered Polyproline Helices

The ability to rationally design biomaterials to formdesired supramolecularconstructs presents an ever-growing research field, with many burgeoningworks within recent years providing exciting results; however, thereexists a broad expanse of promising avenues of research yet to beinvestigated. As such we have set out to make use of the polyprolinehelix as a rigid, tunable, and chiral ligand for the rational designand synthesis of supramolecular constructs. In this investigation,we show how an oligoproline tetramer can be specifically designedand functionalized, allowing predictable tuning of supramolecularinteractions, to engineer the formation of supramolecular peptideframeworks with varying properties and, consequently, laying the groundworkfor further studies utilizing the polyproline helix, with the abilityto design desired supramolecular structures containing these peptidebuilding blocks, having tunable structural features and functionalities.