Natural biomolecular systems have evolved to form a rich variety of supramolecular materials and machinery fundamental to cellular function. The assembly of these structures commonly involves interactions between specific molecular building blocks, a strategy that can also be replicated in an artificial setting to prepare functional materials. The self-assembly of synthetic biomimetic peptides thus allows the exploration of chemical and sequence space beyond that used routinely by biology. In this Review, we discuss recent conceptual and experimental advances in self-assembling artificial peptidic materials. In particular, we explore how naturally occurring structures and phenomena have inspired the development of functional biomimetic materials that we can harness for potential interactions with biological systems. As our fundamental understanding of peptide self-assembly evolves, increasingly sophisticated materials and applications emerge and lead to the development of a new set of building blocks and assembly principles relevant to materials science, molecular biology, nanotechnology and precision medicine.

天然生物分子系统已经演化为形成细胞功能基础的多种超分子材料和机械。这些结构的组装通常涉及特定分子构件之间的相互作用，该策略也可以在人工环境中复制以制备功能材料。因此，合成仿生肽的自组装可以探索超出生物学常规使用的化学和序列空间。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了自组装人工肽材料的最新概念和实验进展。尤其是，我们探索自然发生的结构和现象如何激发功能仿生材料的发展，这些材料可用于与生物系统的潜在相互作用。