The self-assembly of peptides and functionalized amino acids into supramolecular nanostructures has yielded a wide variety of nanomaterials with numerous biomedical applications.

UNMET NEED
Bacterial biofilm formation on wet surfaces represents a significant problem in medicine and environmental sciences. One of the strategies to prevent or eliminate surface adhesion of organisms is surface modification and coating. Dental caries is one of the most prevalent and costly oral diseases caused by the acidification of tooth enamel and dentin by virulent by bacteria. The commonly applied strategies to combat biofilm formation involve the prevention of initial bacterial adhesion to surfaces and biofilm degradation. Despite the advancements in the development of antimicrobial and anti-biofilm materials, coating techniques bear significant deficiencies, including the lack of long-term activity and stability, lack of coating adaptability to diverse materials, easy production and simple application.

OUR SOLUTION
• Amino acids and peptides modified with the fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl (Fmoc) moiety have been demonstrated to form distinct nanostructures whose self-association is strongly governed by the inherent aromaticity and hydrophobicity of the Fmoc moiety.
• The nano-assemblies were incorporated into a dental resin-based composite restorative material and demonstrated their biocompatibility along with an inhibitory effect on Streptococcus mutans in solution, targeting the bacterial cell membrane.
• The nano-assemblies coated surfaces demonstrated durability and antibacterial properties.

ADVANTAGE OVER EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES
The minimal nature of the antibacterial building block, along with its high purity, low cost, ease of embedment within resin-based materials or applying on surfaces, together with its biocompatibility, allows for the facile scale-up of this approach toward the development of clinically available enhanced antibacterial resin composite restoratives.

PATENTS

Patent applications at National Phase.
PCT PCT/IL2019/050788, titled:The Use of Peptide Nanostructures for The Formation of Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Dental Materials,