Investigation of Folded Globular Maltose Binding Protein Based Hydrogels

We have developed a new model to describe the structural architecture of hydrogels composed of cross-linked maltose binding proteins (MBP), supported by multiple techniques including SANS. We suggest that these gels are constituent of large fractal-like aggregates of folded MBP protein that are linked together by unfolded protein. In this new SANS proposal, we aim to determine the size and structure of the fractal aggregates present in MBP based hydrogels as a function of protein volume fraction. These experiments are crucial to validating our hypothesis of the structure of MBP hydrogels, which will provide insight into the structural parameters of folded protein hydrogels and assist the development of design rules for hydrogels with specific properties.