Our latest collaborative work on entitled “Tuning the antimicrobial activity of low molecular weight hydrogels using dopamine autoxidation,” has been accepted within Chemical Communications.

This work was led by Emily Cross and represents a collaboration with Prof Dave Adams’ Group at the School of Chemistry University of Glasgow and is freely available here.

Thanks again to all those involved!

Abstract: We present a method to trigger the formation of dipeptide-based hydrogels by the simple addition of dopamine. Dopamine undergoes oxidation in air, reducing the pH to induce gelation. The production of polydopamine and release of reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide confers antimicrobial activity. Gel stiffness can be controlled by modulating the initial starting pH of the gelator solution. We can use this method to tune the antimicrobial activity of the gels, with gels that are less stiff demonstrating increased bactericidal efficacy against Gram-positive bacteria.