Understanding the mechanisms of molecular self-assembly processes in natural materials is an important step to developing new functional materials with useful properties. Recently, various self-assembled materials have gained attention because of their interesting properties in nanoscale. Nanostructures composed of peptides are especially of interest in materials development because of their many advantageous properties such as biodegradability, biocompatibility and customizable bioactivity. Self-assembled peptidic nanostructures have been studied by many research groups and found use as three-dimensional. cell scaffolds for bone regeneration, dental implants, neural tissue engineering, biosensors; for detection of viruses and other pathogens, antibacterial agents and in drug, protein and gene delivery. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.