Multivalent peptide dendrimers for targeting

We will describe our most recent research towards functional biomaterials for targeting and mol. imaging. Our mol. design is based on concepts drawn from phage display, a technique in mol. biol. used to identify peptide sequences that bind in a specific manner with high affinity towards a substrate of interest. Our phage mimics are derived dendritic polymers. These materials are functionalized with multiple copies (n = 2-5) of targeting peptides identified from phage display using native chem. ligation. Our synthetic methodol. further allows for the incorporation of fluorescent dyes and other labels in addn. to the multivalent targeting scheme. These bioconjugates are ideally suited to the investigation of multivalent ligand-receptor interactions. The design concepts presented here will be placed in a larger context of how multivalent, dynamic, noncovalent interactions may be harnessed in biomaterials such as ours for more effective mol. medicines in the identification and treatment of disease. [on SciFinder (R)]