The mechanism of collagen heterotrimer folding is difficult to recapitulate synthetically. Now an ABC collagen mimetic heterotrimer has been designed that employs pairwise amino acid interactions, validated by X-ray crystallography, to promote composition- and register-specific assembly. The high specificity of its assembly leads to an increased rate of folding compared with similar collagen heterotrimers.
- Carson C. Cole
- Douglas R. Walker
- Jeffrey D. Hartgerink