Research

Who are we?

Our group is interested in aspects of biomolecular self-assembly in areas that spans from diseases, materials, and origin of life. Inspired by nature we design short peptides and utilize amino acids that self-assemble into novel materials. These materials include coatings that prevents bacterial adhesion, capsules with antiviral activity and superhydrophobic objects. In addition, we study the role of non-coded amino acids and peptides as catalyst in the pre-biotic world, the interactions of peptides with hydroxyapatite in bone formation and bacterial adhesion to surfaces.

Peptide-Based Functional Coating

We develop peptide-based functional coatings for various applications. This includes antifouling coating to prevent the undesirable accumulation of organisms on surface, superhydrophopic coatings to generate self-clean surfaces and coatings with multiple functionalities to preventing implant failure.

Peptide-Based Materials

We custom-design peptides that self-assemble into beneficial materials:

Metal-binding peptides for stabilizing emulations
Peptide ligands for vaccine development
Antiviral and antifungal peptides
Hybrid materials

Interactions at the Organic Inorganic Interface

The interactions between organic and inorganic compounds lead to the formation of superior biomaterials in Nature. Understanding these interactions is key for the design of novel materials. Our research focuses on the fundamental rules that govern the interactions between proteins and peptides to inorganic compounds. Our approach includes the use of single molecule force spectroscopy utilizing Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).

Origin of Life

Life is basically a chain of reactions catalyzed by enzymes. Understanding which molecule served as the first catalyst in the prebiotic world is vital for better realizing the evolution of enzymes and therefore the origin of life. We study the role of non coded amino acids as catalysts in the origin of life.

Industrial Scale Antimicrobial Peptide Synthesis

Our aim is to develop a concise, cost-effective and efficient chemical synthesis of short antimicrobial peptides. The optimized process will be used to upstream production of these bioactive peptides in pilot plant for their application in crop protection.