De novo design of peptide scaffolds as novel preorganized ligands for metal-ion coordination.

This chapter describes how de novo designed peptides can be used as novel preorganized ligands for metal ion coordination. The focus is on the design of peptides which are programmed to spontaneously self-assemble into α-helical coiled coils in aqueous solution, and how metal ion binding sites can be engineered onto and into these structures. In addition to describing the various design principles, some key examples are covered illustrating the success of this approach, including a more detailed example in the case study.