Recent Advances in Post‐polymerization Modifications on Polypeptides: Synthesis and Applications

Polypeptides, a kind of very promising biomaterial, have shown a wide range of applications due to their excellent biocompatibility, easy accessibility, and structural variability. To synthesize polypeptides with desired functions, post‐polymerization modification (PPM) plays an important role in introducing novel chemical structure on their side‐chains. The key to PPM strategy is to develop highly selective and efficient reactions that can couple the additional functional moieties with pre‐installed side‐chain functionalities on polypeptides. In this minireview, classic PPM approaches and their recent progresses are summarized and categorized into five sections, including various reactions on unsaturated alkyl, oxygen‐, nitrogen‐, sulfur‐containing and other special functional groups. In addition, we also highlight the applications of the resultant structure‐diversified polypeptides in the field of biomaterial. In this minireview, focus is placed on both classical and recent advances of post‐polymerization modification (PPM) strategies on polypeptides. In addition, this review also highlights the potential applications of generated polypeptides containing diverse side‐chain modifications in the field of hydrogels, protein biologics, drug delivery, antifouling, etc., demonstrating the importance of PPMs on polypeptides.