Protein-mediated nanoscale biotemplating

Biomimetics — the concept of taking ideas from nature and implementing them in technology — has found particular use for the development of nanoscale materials. One such approach employs protein-mediated biotemplating for the nanostructuring of inorganic material. Recently, two key advances have been witnessed in this field. Firstly, the number of successfully employed biotemplates, including feasibility demonstrations of using three-dimensional crystalline structures, has been expanded. Secondly, the introduction of site-directed mutations on the protein template, or the display of peptides that exhibit effective biorecognition sequences for inorganic structures, has led to substantial improvements in our ability to control protein-mediated biotemplating. Taken together, these achievements will pave the way for the successful application of protein-mediated biotemplating in the future.