Institut Charles Sadron Event

Self-assembled peptides’ hydrogels are soft materials currently used in the material, catalytical and biomedical domains. In order to design these materials it is imperative to know the molecular organization of peptides. In this thesis we focused on a modified tri-peptide : Fmoc-FFY. The later have the capability to self-assemble in water via two triggers : the first one is the enzymatic way (Enzymatic Assisted Self-Assembly) with the addition of alkaline phosphatase and Fmoc-FFpY, a precursor to Fmoc-FFY. The second way is the annealing of Fmoc-FFY. In this work we have investigated the structuration of Fmoc-FFY at different spatial and time scales : (i) in the early instants of self-assembly thanks to a molecular dynamics study, (ii) the molecular structure in the nanofiber by the use of image reconstruction and (iii) the microstructure modification of bundles of nanofibers upon the addition of hyaluronic acids identified via X-ray diffusion. Keywords : self-assembly, microstructure, molecular structure, artificial filaments, image reconstruction, molecular dynamics