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dc.date.accessioned2016-01-21T15:55:33Z
dc.date.issued2013-11-01en_US
dc.identifier.issn1939-5116en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/10878
dc.description.abstractSelf-assembly is a ubiquitous process in biology where it plays numerous important roles and underlies the formation of a wide variety of complex biological structures. Over the past two decades, materials scientists have aspired to exploit nature's assembly principles to create artificial materials, with hierarchical structures and tailored properties, for the fabrication of functional devices. Toward this goal, both biological and synthetic building blocks have been subject of extensive research in self-assembly. In fact, molecular self-assembly is becoming increasingly important for the fabrication of biomaterials because it offers a great platform for constructing materials with high level of precision and complexity, integrating order and dynamics, to achieve functions such as stimuli-responsiveness, adaptation, recognition, transport, and catalysis. The importance of peptide self-assembling building blocks has been recognized in the last years, as demonstrated by the literature available on the topic. The simple structure of peptides, as well as their facile synthesis, makes peptides an excellent family of structural units for the bottom-up fabrication of complex nanobiomaterials. Additionally, peptides offer a great diversity of biochemical (specificity, intrinsic bioactivity, biodegradability) and physical (small size, conformation) properties to form self-assembled structures with different molecular configurations. The motivation of this review is to provide an overview on the design principles for peptide self-assembly and to illustrate how these principles have been applied to manipulate their self-assembly across the scales. Applications of self-assembling peptides as nanobiomaterials, including carriers for drug delivery, hydrogels for cell culture and tissue repair are also described. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.en_US
dc.format.extent582 - 612en_US
dc.relation.ispartofWiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnologyen_US
dc.rights"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article which has been published in final form at http://wires.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WiresArticle/wisId-WNAN1238.html. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving."
dc.titleSelf-assembly in nature: Using the principles of nature to create complex nanobiomaterialsen_US
dc.typeArticle
dc.rights.holder© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
dc.identifier.doi10.1002/wnan.1238en_US
pubs.issue6en_US
pubs.notesNot knownen_US
pubs.publication-statusPublisheden_US
pubs.volume5en_US


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