Peptide Materials

<p>Peptides are the building blocks of the natural world; with varied sequences and structures, they enrich materials producing more complex shapes, scaffolds and chemical properties with tailorable functionality. Essentially based on self-assembly and self-organization and mimicking the strategies that occur in Nature, peptide materials have been developed to accomplish certain functions such as the creation of specific secondary structures (a- or 310-helices, b-turns, b-sheets, coiled coils) or biocompatible surfaces with predetermined properties. They also play a key role in the generation of hybrid materials e.g. as peptide-inorganic biomineralized systems and peptide/polymer conjugates, producing smart materials for imaging, bioelectronics, biosensing and molecular recognition applications.</p> <p>Organized into four sections, the book covers the fundamentals of peptide materials, peptide nanostructures, peptide conjugates and hybrid nanomaterials, and applications with chapters including:</p> <ul> <li>Properties of peptide scaffolds in solution and on solid substrates</li> <li>Nanostructures, peptide assembly, and peptide nanostructure design</li> <li>Soft spherical structures obtained from amphiphilic peptides and peptide-polymer hybrids</li> <li>Functionalization of carbon nanotubes with peptides</li> <li>Adsorption of peptides on metal and oxide surfaces</li> <li>Peptide applications including tissue engineering, molecular switches, peptide drugs and drug delivery</li> </ul> <p><i>Peptide Materials: From Nanostructures to Applications</i> gives a truly interdisciplinary review, and should appeal to graduate students and researchers in the fields of materials science, nanotechnology, biomedicine and engineering as well as researchers in biomaterials and bio-inspired smart materials.</p>