Soft Matter for Biomedical Applications
Chapter 10: Minimalistic Peptide Self-assembly into Supramolecular Biomaterials
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Published:07 Jun 2021
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Special Collection: 2021 ebook collectionSeries: Soft Matter Series
M. C. Cringoli, P. Fornasiero, and S. Marchesan, in Soft Matter for Biomedical Applications, ed. H. S. Azevedo, J. F. Mano, and J. Borges, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2021, ch. 10, pp. 236-263.
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Short peptides are attractive building blocks for supramolecular biomaterials for their low-cost, scalability of production and purification, possibility to encode biological messages, and to be processed by enzymes to fine-tune their lifetime toward controlled biodegradation. Over the last few decades, great progress has been made in the understanding of these building blocks for their tailored design to a variety of biological applications. This chapter reviews the design strategies to achieve hydrogels that have been applied to address a variety of biomedical needs. As more knowledge has been gathered in the field, a higher complexity could be achieved, for instance to target subcellular organelles, specific cells, and even to stimulate the immune response. Overall, self-assembling short peptides are reaching their full potential and have opened the gates to new paradigms in therapy to realize futuristic medicine.