Taking inspiration from naturally-occurring proteins, scientists have created protein polymers consisting of functional amino acid sequences that have evolved in nature. The functions of protein polymers can be custom-designed through the modular assembly of protein domains or minimized functional motifs. Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are one of the exquisite building motifs in designing protein polymers. They exhibit stimuli-responsive self-assembling properties, remarkable elasticity, and favorable biological characteristics such as low platelet adhesion and low immunogenicity. With these characteristics, ELP-based materials have been demonstrated to be promising candidates for nanobiomaterial applications such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, and nanobiodevices. This review describes the recent developments in designing modular protein polymers containing ELPs as the building units.

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弹性蛋白样多肽作为设计功能性纳米生物材料的基础

从天然存在的蛋白质中汲取灵感，科学家创造了由天然进化的功能性氨基酸序列组成的蛋白质聚合物。蛋白质聚合物的功能可以通过蛋白质结构域或最小化功能基序的模块组装进行定制设计。弹性蛋白样多肽（ELPs）是设计蛋白质聚合物时精妙的构建基元之一。它们表现出刺激响应的自组装性能，显着的弹性以及良好的生物学特性，例如低血小板粘附性和低免疫原性。具有这些特性，基于ELP的材料已被证明是纳米生物材料应用（如组织工程，药物输送和纳米生物设备）的有前途的候选者。