Advantages of self-assembled supramolecular polymers toward biological applications

Supramolecular self-assembly provides a means of achieving "bottom-up" fabrication of nanoscale materials. Their mechanical properties and functionality arise from the assembly of relatively simple molecular building blocks. These materials have selective affinity to different interfaces, high capacity for interfacial adsorption, nanostructure, and spontaneous formation of unique nano-self-assemblies which exhibit remarkable simplicity and biocompatibility. Due to these attractive features, supramolecular nanostructures, particularly peptide-based, have recently been explored as effective nanomaterials in applications ranging from controlled release and drug delivery, nano-fabrication, skin care, biomineralization, sensing, antimicrobial materials, and tissue engineering. This range of applications is facilitated by the diverse primary sequences of the short peptides, which can be either biomimetic or de novo designed. Thus, their self-assembling mechanistic processes and nanostructures also vary enormously. This chapter highlights recent advances in studying self-assembled peptide systems, focusing on the formation of different nanostructures and their applications in diverse fields.