Force-induced α-β transitions in coiled coil structures (B17*)

大量生物材料含有α-螺旋卷曲螺旋。当应变时，这些结构经历转变成片状结构。这个项目的目标是机械地理解这种转变下施加的剪切力的约束。为此，将研究天然和合成的卷曲螺旋，以表征当卷曲螺旋插入水凝胶中时，在单分子和系综水平上的转变。这一结果将为生物材料中β-片层结构形成的机制和功能相关性提供新的线索。

A large number of biological materials contain alpha-helical coiled coils. These structures undergo a transition into ß-sheets when strained. The goal of this project is to mechanistically understand this transition under the constraint of an applied shear force. For this purpose, natural and synthetic coiled coils will be investigated to characterize the transition at the single-molecule and ensemble level, when the coiled coils are inserted into a hydrogel. The results will shed new light on the mechanism and functional relevance of ß-sheet structure formation in biological materials.