REU/RET Projects

Christopher Snyder
University: Florida Institute of Technology
Mentor in UCF: Dr. D. Walters - Physics

Common Elements and Motifs in Peptides Binding to Carbon Nanotubes

Peptides are basically a chain of amino acids. They fold into their native three-dimensional shape or conformation based on the sequence of amino acids and the environment that they are in. Some peptides are bound to have conformations that allow them to bind to CNTs. Ideally, there are peptides that bind to one type of CNT, but not another. A series of twelve-residue peptides were found via phage display techniques that showed an affinity for carbon nanotubes.