Collagen Mimetic Peptides

The bodys most plentiful protein, collagen, provides a scaffold upon which cells grow. In this video, Michael Yu, an associate professor of materials science and engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering, describes how a synthetic molecule called collagen mimetic peptide (CMP) made in his lab can mimic the properties of natural collagen. One day CMP could produce detailed images of tumors, detect deadly buildup in arteries, deliver drugs, and improve blood supply to implanted tissues. Work represented in this video, produced by the INBT Animation Studio, is derived from the paper Spatio-Temporal Modification of Collagen Scaffolds Mediated by Triple Helical Propensity by Allen Y. Wang, Catherine A. Foss, Shirley Leong, Xiao Mo, Martin G. Pomper, and Seungju M. Yu from the June 12, 2008 issue of Biomacromolecules. Both Yu and Pomper are affiliated faculty members of the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology.