TUNIFOLDS

TUNIFOLDS

TUNIFOLDS : Building blocks of foldamers in the gas phase

Contacts M. Mons, V. Brenner

This topic capitalizes on the team's achievements and in particular its pioneering role in the laser spectroscopy of isolated peptides. The elementary building blocks of foldamers, based on β-peptides, i.e. peptides more complex than the natural (α-) peptides, have specific intramolecular interactions, which can be characterized by IR / UV laser spectroscopy.
These studies are at the origin of the project ANR TUNIFOLDS, in collaboration with the groups of D. Aitken and A. Zehnacker in Orsay, which seeks to finely tune the folding properties of the building blocks, by using specific intramolecular interactions, such as NH – S hydrogen bonds, when a heteroatom sulfur is included in the building blocks. Using these specific interactions as pivots, one should be able to control the folding properties of oligomers of these β-peptides, to form various types of secondary structures (helices, ribbons, etc …).

This project is funded by the French National Research Agency (2017-2020, ANR-17-CE29-0008)

Collaborations :
• Pr. David J. Aitken (Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux d'Orsay, Université Paris-Saclay)
• Anne Zehnacker, Katia LeBarbu-Debus, Valéria Lepère, (Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d'Orsay, Université Paris-Saclay)