Peptide-mediated interactions in biological systems: new discoveries and applications

Peptide-mediated interactions play very important roles in cellular processes. Recent years have seen much activity in the discovery of new bioactive peptides, and interactions mediated by protein–peptide binding events. At the same time, computational approaches continue to be developed that allow protein–peptide interactions to be discovered with great accuracy. There are also a growing number of chemicals that can target these interactions with various applications in disease. Both new discoveries and predictions suggest that these protein–peptide interactions play greater roles in cellular processes than previously thought. We propose that projects to uncover the protein–peptide repertoire used in Nature in a systematic way will have numerous applications in molecular biology and medicine.