Amyloids in synthetic applications
Amyloids are versatile and dual-faceted materials. They appear in various pathological conditions and have been associated with several human diseases. On the other hand, they have diverse physiological roles ranging from hormone storage to structural support and defence mechanisms. In addition, self-assembled amyloid peptides gain growing interest in material science, bioengineering, and synthetic chemistry as they can serve as a simple, low cost, green and tuneable catalysts of chemical reactions or scaffolds and building blocks for nano/biomaterials. This Collection aims to focus on the beneficial sides of amyloid formation, primarily exploring functional amyloids used for unconventional synthetic purposes.
Editors
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Marianna Török
University of Boston Massachusetts, USA
Marianna Török is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Boston, USA. She received broad training in chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics from the University of Szeged, Hungary, from the University of Southern California Los Angeles, and the MIT, USA. She has been involved in amyloid research since 2000 when, as a postdoctoral fellow in Ralf Langen’s group, she investigated the structural features of Aβ fibrils and contributed to the introduction of the SDSL-EPR for structural studies of amyloidogenic polypeptides. Her current interests include understanding the chemical factors that govern protein misfolding and aggregation leading to amyloid formation, and how these results can be translated into chemical and biomedical applications. Dr Török has been an Editorial Board Member for Scientific Reports since 2016.
