Nano Biomaterial Design
Peptides have very useful tool in designing scaffolds for biomedical applications. Among them, extracellular matrix proteins have been historically a very useful template for Peptide-based scaffolds for tissue engineering. Various artificial sequences have been explored for such applications, but most have them failed for widespread clinical applications.
The extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins has been found to have profound application is tissue engineering like biomaterial scaffold design, bioink, nanocarriers, etc. However not all of the protein motifs are requires and the hotspot motifs are extracted from some the popular ECM proteins which includes collagen, elastin, fibronectin, and laminin. These proteins provide structural support, regulate cell behavior, and play a role in cell signaling and communication. The ECM also provides a scaffold for cell migration, tissue repair, and the formation of new blood vessels. In addition, the ECM plays a critical role in maintaining tissue integrity and function.
At our lab we are using Hot spot-motifs isolated from various ECM proteins, these motifs triggers cell adhesion and cell proliferation and tissue regeneration for tissue repairing. However, these motifs alone doesn't form aggregate which is required to mimic the  extracellular matrix. Currently are are bioengineering the hot spot-motifs to enhance their aggregation, stability and responsive to various tissue microenvironmental factors.