Soft materials based on designed self-assembling peptides: from design to application.

Self-assembling peptides (SAPs) are one of the useful tools to fabricate various nanostructures and resulting higher macrostructures from them based on supramolecular chemistry. Recent continuous studies on SAPs give us much important knowledge, from the design of SAPs to their application as nanomaterials and biomaterials. The process from design to application of SAPs includes steps of optimization in self-assembling properties and functionalization. This review briefly describes general designs of SAPs, control and functionalization methods of nanostructures fabricated from SAPs and recent application examples.