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A novel tolan-based template was designed to induce 3-hairpin formation as well as to report the conformational changes resulting from different a amino acid derivatives. The synthesis of 2-amino-2'-carboxydiphenylacetylene (the template) and thirty template-peptide conjugates and model compounds are described. The ability of the template to act as a reporting conformational template (RCT) for the antiparallel 1-sheet formation was investigated and the results are reported herein. As a key reaction in the synthesis of the template and the template-peptide derivatives AcAA1-Taa-AAzNHMe, the Pdo-CuI catalyzed coupling of an aryl acetylene with an aryl iodide to yield tolanes was investigated and the scope of this coupling reaction was defined. The commonly-used Sonogahira's procedure was modified, and excellent coupling results were obtained for aryl reactants that are functionalized with peptides at the ortho positions. Conformational studies of these template-peptide conjugates and mode