Collagen mimetic peptide discs promote assembly of a broad range of natural protein fibers through hydrophobic interactions.

Collagen mimetic peptides that alone formed two-dimensional nanoscale discs driven by hydrophobic interactions were shown in electron microscopy studies to also co-assemble with natural fibrous proteins to produce discs-on-a-string (DoS) nanostructures. In most cases, peptide discs also facilitated bundling of the protein fibers. This provides insight into how synthetic and natural proteins may be combined to develop multicomponent, multi-dimensional architectures at the nanoscale.