Dr. Jeff Saven
University of Pennsylvania
Friday, April 17, 2026
12:00 Noon
Room 120 – Meyerhoff Chemistry Building
Host: Dr. Joseph Bennett
“Design and engineering of peptide-based biomolecular materials and colloidal systems”
Nanostructures, including peptides and proteins, provide potentially well-ordered, highly functional materials. Protein and macromolecular design require the engineering of noncovalent and covalent interactions as well as responsiveness to external conditions. Theoretical and computational methods can identify amino acid sequences with desired structures and functions. Such methods leverage physical concepts and address the structural complexity of proteins and their many possible amino acid sequences. Computationally designed helical “bundlemers” will be discussed in the context of self-assembling biomolecular materials.