Functional Polymer-Bioconjugates as Molecular LEGO® Bricks^†

The controlled integration of sequence-defined oligopeptides into synthetic polymers leads to peptide-polymer conjugates with precisely defined, multifunctional peptide segments. These bioconjugates allow for the direct realization of bio-inspired polymer science. Peptides combine self-assembly properties with the potential to actively interact with biological systems. Hence conjugates can be exploited to program microstructure formation processes in polymeric materials by controlling secondary interactions between the peptide segments. Moreover, the programmable functionalities of the peptides can be used to tune specific interactions, e.g., between drugs and polymeric drug carriers or between inorganic crystal surfaces and polymeric crystal-growth modifiers.