ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

The impact of building block aspect ratio on the hierarchical architecture of folded protein hydrogels

Abstract: Hydrogels are 3D self-assembled self-supporting networks of cross-linked hydrophilic building blocks swollen by large volumes of water. we use folded globular proteins as hydrogel building blocks, in order to harness their intrinsic mechanical properties together with their biological functionality. Our ambitious goal is to obtain the underlying design principles of these gels, by gaining a cross-length scale understanding of the structural and mechanical properties of folded protein hydrogels. In this new proposal we aim to exploit building block aspect ratio to control hydrogel network formation, structure and mechanics, where aspect ratio describes the ratio of height and width of the engineered protein. Such insight will provide a powerful platform for controlling intermediate structure in hierarchical networks and a novel route to tuning hydrogels with tailored properties.

Principal Investigator: Professor Lorna Dougan
Local Contact: Dr Najet Mahmoudi
Experimenter: Dr Ben Hanson
Experimenter: Dr Matthew Hughes
Experimenter: Miss Christa Brown
Experimenter: Miss Sophie Cussons

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2210126

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2210126

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Professor Lorna Dougan et al; (2022): The impact of building block aspect ratio on the hierarchical architecture of folded protein hydrogels, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2210126

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.