Self-Assembled Peptide Nanostructures for Regenerative Medicine and Biology

Peptides are intriguing building blocks for a variety of applications in bionanotechnology. They can self-assemble into many forms of nanostructures. In this chapter, we focus on peptide nanofibers and nanotubes. Their design principles are presented and their applications as tissue engineering scaffolds, drug delivery vehicles and therapeutics are illustrated. We also describe the nanofibers derived from a novel class of ultrashort self-assembling peptides. These ultrashort self-assembling peptides contain three to seven natural aliphatic amino acids and can form hydrogels with biocompatibility, high thermal stability and high mechanical strength. They hold great potential for various biotechnological and industrial applications.