Michelle Liberato

• PhD
• Federal University of ABC

Biopolymer‐based nanocomposites are gaining prominence in the fabrication of biomedical devices, with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) being widely used in smart dressings for drug and protein integration. This study introduces electrospun mats composed of partially hydrolyzed PVA and sodium titanate nanotubes (TiNTs). The investigation involved mats with T...

The formation of hydrogels by photosensitized oxidation and crosslinking of histidine-derived polymers is demonstrated for the first time. The photooxidation of pendant His mediated by singlet oxygen was used to promote covalent coupling by its dimerization. As a proof-of-concept, two systems were studied: (i) chondroitin sulfate (CS) functionalize...

Organic Piezoelectrics In article number 2102524, Pavel S. Zelenovskii, Andrei L. Kholkin, and co‐workers use the co‐assembly of L,L‐ and D,D‐enantiomers of diphenylalanine dipeptide to achieve a new layered organic piezoelectric with high out‐of‐plane piezoelectric activity and a d33 coefficient 10 times higher than that of quartz. Weakly bonded l...

2D piezoelectric materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides are attracting significant attention because they offer various benefits over bulk piezoelectrics. In this work, the fabrication of layered biomolecular crystals of diphenylalanine (FF) obtained via a co-assembly of l,l- and d,d- enantiomers of FF monomers is reported. Their crysta...

This paper describes the development of a facile and environmentally friendly strategy for supporting crotamine on gold nanoparticles (GNPs). Our approach was based on the covalent binding interaction between the cell penetrating peptide crotamine, which is a snake venom polypeptide with preference to penetrate dividing cells, and a polyethylene gl...

Aim: To study freeze-drying of silica nanoparticles (SiO2NPs) in order to find suitable conditions to produce lyophilized powders with no aggregation after resuspension and storage. Methods: SiO2NPs were synthesized using a Stöber-based procedure, and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering and nitrogen adsorption...

Organic molecule conjugates usually arrange themselves into complex multiphase systems that are sensitive to processing and local chemical environment. Moreover, these conjugates are able to self-assemble at different scales, varying from nano- to macroscale. In addition, intermolecular interactions introduce structural variations in the molecular...

Peptide-based scaffold is frontier research in materials science with widespread impact in biomedical engineering. In this paper, we describe a hybrid material formulated through the conjugation of electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) fibers and micro/nanotubes of L,L-diphenylalanine (FF-MNTs). Morphology and crystallinity in the composite matrices a...

A model octapeptide peptide consisting of an alternating sequence of arginine (Arg) and phenylalanine (Phe) residues, namely [Arg-Phe]4 was prepared, and its self-assembly in solution solution. The simple alternating [Arg-Phe]4 peptide sequence allows for unique insights into the aggregation process and the structure of the self-assembled motifs. F...

We report here the fabrication of a biomimetic sensor for direct oxygen reduction; the sensor consists of multicopper oxidases derived from cyclic-tetrameric copper(II) species containing the ligand (4-imidazolyl)ethylene-2-amino-1-ethylpyridine (apyhist) that are self-assembled with l-diphenylalanine micro/nanostructures (FF-MNTs). The [Cu4(apyhis...

A novel enzymatic platform for the sensing of H2O2 and glucose that uses l,l-diphenylalanine micro/nanostructures (FF-MNSs) as an enzyme support is shown. This platform is obtained by the self-assembly of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH), FF-MNSs, and microperoxidase-11 (MP11) anchored onto the peptide matrix, in two different crystal structure...

We report for the first time on the self-assembly of nanostructures composed exclusively of alternating positively charged and hydrophobic amino acids. A novel arginine/phenylalanine octapeptide, RF8, was synthesized. Because the low hydrophobicity of this sequence makes its spontaneous ordering through solution-based methods difficult, a recently...

We provide a panorama on the utilization of microscopy for investigating peptide-based self-assemblies. Specifically, we present results from researches around the self-assembly of L-diphenylalanine. Recent advances obtained in our group are presented and the paramount role of microscopy on these developments is hightlighted. We begin by presenting...