*Zoom* [PhD Thesis Presentation] ‐ Mr. Shijin Zhang– “Design and Synthesize Small Molecular Self-Assembling Peptides for Biomedical Applications"

Molecular self-assembly is a spontaneous process of molecular association through non-covalent bond interaction. It is ubiquitous in biological system, for example, self-assembly of lipid bilayer and proteins. Imitating molecular self-assembly and creating novel functional molecular assemblies through synthetic chemistry are important issues in nanotechnology development. Small peptidic molecules are ideal candidates for imitating molecular self-assembly in biological system because of their biocompatibility and easy functionalization for bio-related applications including drug delivery, anti-cancer treatment and biosensors.  

My thesis research focused on the design and synthesis of assembling peptides for novel nanostructure construction via self-assembly and co-assembly, and the exploration of their bio-related applications. The well-established building block naphthalene-phenylalanine-phenylalanine is selected for molecular engineering for pi-pi interaction and hydrogen bonding oriented self-assembly. Further molecule modifications by conjugating with light-responsive or enzyme-responsive motifs will endow peptidic molecules with regulated self-assembly behavior by controlling the external stimuli. Novel nanostructures in higher order can be reached either by multi-component co-assembly, or step-by-step assembly by triggering multiple external stimuli. Combination of such molecular design with medicinal functionalization is applied in the development of nanomedicine and biomedical engineering.