Entry Date:
November 7, 2012

Skylar Self-Folding Protein Devices

Principal Investigator Skylar Tibbits


The Self-Folding Proteins are single strands of material with embedded fold-angles that when thrown into the air randomly, self-assemble into the 3D structure of the desired protein. This project aims to study macro-scale protein folding to gain insights into non-intuitive and non-tangible aspects of self-assembly phenomena. The Crambin Protein has been utilized due to its well-studied characteristics and minimal size. This technology appears to be scaleable to larger protein strands and other 1D to 3D self-assembly systems. Further developments will include cross-linking and hierarchical folding with weighted folding sequences.