Figure 4.

Elastin-like polypeptide hydrogels can provide many tunable properties. ELPs can be expressed bearing multiple bioactive and functional molecules (top) including cell-adhesive ligands (i), various enzyme-cleavable domains (ii), cross-linkable residues (iii), and peptide/protein therapeutics (iv). ELP hydrogel formation can be carried out using two methods. First, ELPs can be expressed with thiol- or amine-bearing residues that permit chemical crosslinking without prior modification (bottom left). Second, a hydrophobic phase separation can be induced by raising the solution temperature above the tunable lower critical solution temperature or LCST (bottom right).