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More specifically, polypeptides like collagen and silk, are biocompatible materials that are being used in ground-breaking research, as these are inexpensive and easily attainable materials. Gelatin polymer is often used on dressing wounds where it acts as an adhesive.
Depicted above is the monomeric ELP unit. X represents an arbitrary amino acid. Polymers are formed from this pentapeptide monomeric unite. Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are synthetic biopolymers with potential applications in the fields of cancer therapy, tissue scaffolding, metal recovery, and protein purification.
Both the α-helix and the β-sheet represent a way of saturating all the hydrogen bond donors and acceptors in the peptide backbone. Some parts of the protein are ordered but do not form any regular structures. They should not be confused with random coil, an unfolded polypeptide chain lacking any fixed three-dimensional structure.
In general, polypeptides are unbranched polymers, so their primary structure can often be specified by the sequence of amino acids along their backbone. However, proteins can become cross-linked, most commonly by disulfide bonds , and the primary structure also requires specifying the cross-linking atoms, e.g., specifying the cysteines involved ...
The beta sheet (β-sheet, also β-pleated sheet) is a common motif of the regular protein secondary structure. Beta sheets consist of beta strands ( β-strands ) connected laterally by at least two or three backbone hydrogen bonds , forming a generally twisted, pleated sheet.
Polymer-protein hybrids are a class of nanostructure composed of protein-polymer conjugates (i.e. complexes composed of one protein attached to one or more polymer chains). [1] [2] The protein component generally gives the advantages of biocompatibility and biodegradability, as many proteins are produced naturally by the body and are therefore well tolerated and metabolized. [3]
Polymer nomenclature is generally based upon the type of monomer residues comprising the polymer. A polymer which contains only a single type of repeat unit is known as a homopolymer, while a polymer containing two or more types of repeat units is known as a copolymer. [22] A terpolymer is a copolymer which contains three types of repeat units ...
Step-growth polymers increase in molecular weight at a very slow rate at lower conversions and reach moderately high molecular weights only at very high conversion (i.e., >95%). Solid state polymerization to afford polyamides (e.g., nylons) is an example of step-growth polymerization.