Anchor peptides that bind to hair

DWI scientists have already identified anchor peptides that adhere to certain plastics, metals or various natural surfaces. These anchor peptides can act as biodegradable "adhesion promoters" to bind a wide variety of material building blocks to surfaces. The binding strength of the anchor peptides can be tailored using protein engineering.

The anchor peptide technology and the established protein engineering methods represent an important expertise of the DWI. The anchor peptides offer a promising alternative to polymer-based adhesion promoters, which, in the future, will fall under the microplastic definition in more and more fields of application and may no longer be used. Based on preliminary work at the DWI, the Association of Friends is supporting a research project launched in 2018 to identify or develop anchor peptides that can bind specifically to the surface of hair without simultaneously binding to skin cells. The scientific findings of this research project could be of future relevance in hair cosmetics research.

Financial support: Förderverein Deutsches Wollforschungsinstitut Aachen e.V. (since 2018)