Template-Directed Assembly of a de Novo Designed Protein

Abstract

A number of biological materials owe their unusual structural characteristics and mechanical properties to long-range order induced by the lamination of â-sheet proteins between layers of inorganic mineral.1 In such composites, both the protein layer and the mineral layer adopt structures different from those they assume in isolation. Interactions between such layers and the ordered structures that result from these interactions enable nature to produce biomaterials that are simultaneously hard, strong, and tough. With the long-term goal of constructing artificial biomaterials with laminated structures, we developed a biomimetic system using a highly ordered surface to template the assembly of a de noVo designed â-sheet protein. The surface used is highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), which forms individual crystallite domains extending over several microns.2 The graphite lattice is hexagonal; therefore structures templated by HOPG are expecte