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Biomimetic peptide self-assembly for functional materials

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 4, pages 615–634 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Natural biomolecular systems have evolved to form a rich variety of supramolecular materials and machinery fundamental to cellular function. The assembly of these structures commonly involves interactions between specific molecular building blocks, a strategy that can also be replicated in an artificial setting to prepare functional materials. The self-assembly of synthetic biomimetic peptides thus allows the exploration of chemical and sequence space beyond that used routinely by biology. In this Review, we discuss recent conceptual and experimental advances in self-assembling artificial peptidic materials. In particular, we explore how naturally occurring structures and phenomena have inspired the development of functional biomimetic materials that we can harness for potential interactions with biological systems. As our fundamental understanding of peptide self-assembly evolves, increasingly sophisticated materials and applications emerge and lead to the development of a new set of building blocks and assembly principles relevant to materials science, molecular biology, nanotechnology and precision medicine.

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Fig. 1: Supramolecular chemical space accessible to biomimetic self-assembling peptides.
Fig. 2: Biomimetic supramolecular peptide scaffolds enable cell adhesion and proliferation.
Fig. 3: Self-assembly of membrane and surfactant-like peptides at interfaces.
Fig. 4: Self-assembling biomimetic-peptide-based antimicrobial nanostructures.
Fig. 5: Mechanisms of liquid–liquid phase separation and condensation.
Fig. 6: Peptides as biomineralization scaffolds and organic–inorganic composite agents.

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Acknowledgements

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 675007 (T.A.H., G.J.L.B. and T.P.J.K.), the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) through the ERC grant PhysProt grant agreement 337969 (A.L. and T.P.J.K.) and the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme BISON grant agreement 694426 (L.S. and E.G.). We also thank the Newman Foundation (T.P.J.K.), the Oppenheimer Early Career Fellowship (A.L.), the Israeli Ministry of Science, Technology and Space (L.S.), the BBSRC (T.P.J.K.), the Royal Society (URF\R\180019, G.J.L.B.), FCT Portugal (FCT Investigator IF/00624/2015 to G.J.L.B.), the Israeli National Nanotechnology Initiative and Helmsley Charitable Trust (E.G.), Elan Pharmaceuticals (T.P.J.K.) and the Centre for Misfolding Diseases (A.L. and T.P.J.K.) for financial support. We are grateful to our late colleague and friend Chris Dobson for input into this Review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Centre for Misfolding Diseases, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Aviad Levin, Tuuli A. Hakala, Gonçalo J. L. Bernardes & Tuomas P. J. Knowles

  2. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Lee Schnaider & Ehud Gazit

  3. Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Professor Egas Moniz, Lisboa, Portugal

    Gonçalo J. L. Bernardes

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Ehud Gazit

  5. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Tuomas P. J. Knowles

Authors
  1. Aviad Levin
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  2. Tuuli A. Hakala
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Contributions

A.L., T.A.H and L.S. contributed equally to this work. A.L., G.J.L.B., E.G. and T.P.J.K. conceived the Review. All authors contributed to the discussion and writing of the Review.

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Correspondence to Tuomas P. J. Knowles.

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Levin, A., Hakala, T.A., Schnaider, L. et al. Biomimetic peptide self-assembly for functional materials. Nat Rev Chem 4, 615–634 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-020-0215-y

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