Covalent Capture of a Heterotrimeric Collagen Helix.

Stabilizing the three-dimensional structure of supramolecular materials can be accomplished through covalent capture of the assembled system. The lysine-aspartate charge pairs designed to direct the self-assembly of a collagen triple helix were subsequently used to covalently capture the helix through proximity-directed amide bond formation using EDC/HOBT activation. The triple helix thus stabilized maintains its folded structure and can now be used for applications previously inaccessible due to problematic folding equilibria.