Sequenced defined biomolecules for nanomaterial synthesis, functionalization, and assembly

•Review on bionanotechnology.•Biomolecules used in nanomaterials synthesis, functionalization and assembly.•Modified peptides provide novel properties to nanomaterials.

Biomolecules represent an invaluable resource to nanotechnology by providing a large diversity of highly functional biomolecular templates. As a result, these have been extensively used for controlling the synthesis, functionalization, and assembly of nanomaterials, while also creating materials with new properties and structures. In the following, we focus on the use of peptides to achieve these goals and describe their general utility, sequence programmability, and use as templates. Also, we highlight several recent advances in the identification and selection of high affinity nanomaterial-binding peptides, provide a few examples of peptide functionalized surfaces and peptide templated materials, and describe how simple modifications to well characterized nanomaterial-binding peptides can be used to manipulate interactions and physiochemical properties.