his special issue has been a work in progress for almost a year. The Journal envisioned an issue composed of a collection of reviews that defined the current state of art in using peptides in materials science. After reading through this issue, I think we have succeeded. The work described in this issue is not only cutting edge, but in my opinion, it is simply really cool! The Journal asked each contributing author to prepare a review that highlighted their own work in light of the developments in their respective sub-fields of peptide-based materials.
Historically, peptides have proved useful in a diverse array of applications. Peptides have served as the impetus for the development of synthetic methodology, their folding propensities helped lay the foundation of protein structure prediction, their biological activity can spur drug development, peptides can deliver payloads to cells, and they can direct the fate of cells, to name a few applications. Because of this diversity in function, Peptide Scientists are also a diverse group; individually, we have been classically trained as chemists, biologists, structural biologists, biochemists, physicists, mathematicians, and the list goes on. However, we are all bound together by one elementary thing-the amide bond.
In the last decade or so, the emergence of peptides in materials science exemplifies another use of these fascinating molecules. As such, our community of peptide scientists invites yet another set of disciplines into our family, namely materials science and engineering. One of my hopes for this issue is that it will serve to introduce engineers to peptide science as well as introduce peptide scientists to materials science and engineering. One can only imagine the exciting developments that are ahead of us as practitioners of these disciplines learn more about each other's science. I hope that this issue will catalyze these interactions. Sit back and enjoy a scholarly yet entertaining read! Sincerely,