Self-assembled peptide nanostructures for the development of electrochemical biosensors

Abstract

Biological building blocks such as peptides or proteins are able to self-organize into nanostructures with particular properties. There are several possibilities for their use in varying applications such as drug delivery, biosensing, clean-room fabrication methods, and tissue engineering. These biological nanostructures have recently been utilized for bionanotechnological applications thanks to their easy and low-cost fabrication, their stability, and their facile functionalization. These features suggest the usage of self-assembled peptide nanostructures in the development of biosensing platforms, and the present chapter explores their use for such purposes. Several immobilization strategies, mechanisms, and detected substrates are described. Moreover, different possibilities to functionalize and modify their structure toward utilization in sensing applications are also discussed.