Proteins have various functions in vivo that can potentially be applied to pharmaceuticals and nanomaterials as a naturally-derived material. A research group of doctoral student Kosuke Kikuchi and Professor Takafumi Ueno of the School of Life Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology is focusing on protein needles (PN), and has successfully produced a desired pattern by regulating the tip-to-tip interactions of the PN molecules. It became possible to create various patterns by changing the tip-to-tip interactions of these molecules, opening the way for designing molecular robots capable of self-assembly into nano-structures, and for next-generation smart materials. A video giving a brief overview of the study in now available.
The achievements of this study are also introduced in the Tokyo Tech News article "Decoding Protein Assembly Dynamics with Artificial Protein Needles." Please take a look.
