Name of Intellectual Property: Self-Assembling Peptide Nanostructures for wide ranging applications

Submitted by: Larry Loev, Business Director, Engineering and Physical Sciences, Ramot at Tel Aviv University, Ltd.

Inventor Information: Prof. Ehud Gazit, PhD, Vice President for Research and Development, Chair for Nano-Biology, and Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University

Non-Confidential Technology Summary: We have developed a unique and novel family of peptide nanostructures that are based on aromatic homo-dipeptides. This includes peptide nanotubes, nanospheres, and hydrogels with nano-scale order. It has also been demonstrated that these peptide nanotubes could serve as a mold for the fabrication of metals and building blocks of a novel electrochemical platform. Furthermore, the peptide tubes were demonstrated to have very strong mechanical rigidity with Young modulus of about 19 GPa. Our work also reveals that a peptide homologue can form spherical nanometric assemblies. Both the nanotubes and nanospheres assemble efficiently and have remarkable stability.

Why is this important or intriguing? A huge range of applications is available for implementing peptide nanostructures, including textiles, structural materials, MEMS, and chemical and biological sensors. Key features of these novel nanostructures are:

• Remarkable rigidity
• Thermally stable to ~300 C
• Chemically stable (acids/bases/organic solvents)
• Can be produced using simple building blocks, is water soluble, and formed under mild conditions
• High versatility, with a chemical structure that allows tailor-made chemical and biological modifications

Synopsis of Business Opportunity: Joint ventures are welcomed in fields seeking to give additional properties of internal and external strength, surface area increase, preferential uptake of chemicals/biological materials.  We are seeking an enterprise interested in in-licensing our technology and working together toward commercializing it.

Ownership: All IP and know-how are owned by Ramot, the tech transfer office of Tel Aviv University.

Patent Status: U.S. patents 7,491,699 and 7,504,383; European patent 1,583,713; 4 PCTs

Contact Information:

Larry Loev
Business Director,
Engineering and Physical Sciences
Ramot at Tel Aviv University, Ltd.
PO Box 39296 Israel
Tel Aviv, 61392

E-mail: larry.loev@ramot.org
Phone: 972-3-6406544

Posted June 25th, 2009 under Hot IP, Nanomaterials