{"paper":{"title":"A Central Disulfide Junction Drives Transient Network Formation in Elastin-Like Polypeptides, Enabling Low-Concentration Hydrogels","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"cond-mat.soft","authors_text":"Bertrand Garbay (LCPO, BIOTIS), CBMN), Christophe Schatz (LCPO), Guillaume Goudounet (LCPO), Jean-Fran\\c{c}ois Le Meins (LCPO), Jean-Paul Chapel (CRPP), Nadia Mahmoudi (LCPO, Olivier Sandre (LCPO), Saron Catak (LPCT), Tingting Zhang (LCPO)","submitted_at":"2026-08-20T09:05:04Z","abstract_excerpt":"The self-assembly of associative triblock copolymers composed of a central hydrophilic elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) block and short fatty acid end groups (C16) was investigated in aqueous solution. In one system, the ELP contains 80 pentapeptide units (C16-80-C16), whereas in the other two C16-ELP40 chains were oxidatively coupled through their terminal cysteine residues to form a central disulfide bond, yielding C16-(40)2-C16. Despite their nearly identical molecular weights and compositions, the two polymers exhibit markedly different self-assembly behaviors. C16-80-C16 forms large hydroph"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2608.19810","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2608.19810/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}