Ordering recombinant silk-elastin-like nanofibers on the microscale.

Self-assembled peptide/polypeptide nanofibers are appealing building blocks for creating complex three-dimensional structures. However, ordering assembled peptide/polypeptide nanofibers into three-dimensional structures on the microscale remains challenging and often requires the employment of top-down approaches. We report that silk-elastin-like protein polymers self-assemble into nanofibers in physiologically relevant conditions, the assembled nanofibers further form fiber clusters on the microscale, and the nanofiber clusters eventually coalesce into three-dimensional structures with distinct nanoscale and microscale features. It is believed that the interplay between fiber growth and molecular diffusion leads to the ordering of the assembled silk-elastin-like nanofibers at the microscale.