BIT Mesra’s Scientists Develop Smart Peptides That Respond to Body’s pH – A Leap Toward Regenerative Medicine

In a groundbreaking advancement, researchers from the Department of Bioengineering and Biotechnology, BIT Mesra, working at the Advanced Bio-Computing Lab, have developed smart peptides that can sense and respond to changes in the body’s pH. This discovery holds immense promise for

applications in wound healing, tissue engineering, and targeted drug delivery.

Published in the internationally reputed journal ACS Applied Bio Materials, the study focuses on a naturally occurring peptide sequence DGEA (Asp-Gly-Glu-Ala), derived from collagen. By redesigning this sequence and using advanced molecular dynamics simulations, the team created self-assembling peptide scaffolds that behave differently under acidic or basic conditions—mimicking natural tissue response during injury or disease.

“This is the first report to demonstrate pH-responsive behavior in DGEA-based peptide systems,” said Dr. Alok Jain, the lead researcher. “It opens new avenues for developing adaptive biomaterials for clinical use.”

The work was carried out with valuable contributions from co-authors and student researchers at BIT Mesra. The project received funding support from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India.

These intelligent peptide materials have the potential to be developed into injectable gels, smart wound dressings, or bioactive implants, particularly beneficial in resource-limited healthcare settings.

This innovation not only strengthens BIT Mesra’s growing impact in cutting-edge biotechnology research but also highlights how computational biology and peptide engineering can converge to solve real-world medical challenges from the heart of Jharkhand.