Self-Assembled Peptide–Inorganic Nanoparticle Superstructures: From Component Design to Applications

[Abstract] Peptides have become excellent platforms for the design of peptide–nanoparticle hybrid superstructures, owing to their self-assembly and binding/recognition capabilities. Morover, peptide sequences can be encoded and modified to finely tune the structure of the hybrid systems and pursue functionalities that hold promise in an array of high-end applications. This feature article summarizes the different methodologies that have been developed to obtain self-assembled peptide–inorganic nanoparticle hybrid architectures, and discusses how the proper encoding of the peptide sequences can be used for tailoring the architecture and/or functionality of the final systems. We also describe the applications of these hybrid superstructures in different fields, with a brief look at future possibilities towards the development of new functional hybrid materials.We are thankful for the funding received from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 851179), the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) (CTQ2016-75629-P), the Agencia Estatal de Investigación and FEDER (CTQ2017-89166-R) and the Consellería de Educación, Universidade e Formación Profesional, Xunta de Galicia (ED431C 2018/39). E. P. thanks the UDC-Inditex InTalent Programme for her research contract and funding and the Xunta de Galicia for the Oportunius ProgrammeXunta de Galicia; ED431C 2018/3