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  • Review Article
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Design and sustainability of polypeptide material systems

Nature Reviews Materials volume 10, pages 750–768 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Some of the highest-performance materials in nature, including spider silk and collagen, are formed through protein self-assembly. These natural materials, which combine function, performance and assembly under mild aqueous conditions, have inspired a generation of technologically useful biomaterials that use natural proteins as the molecular building blocks. The shift from oil-based feedstocks towards renewable materials has accelerated the search for plastic replacements and has stimulated work in the two major classes of abundant natural polymers, proteins and polysaccharides. Whereas polysaccharides are already used in areas from packaging to structural applications, the unique properties of proteins have not yet been fully harnessed for renewable materials. Advances over the past 15 years have highlighted the promise of protein systems for high-performance applications, enabled by a fundamental understanding of polypeptide self-assembly, emerging computational methods such as artificial intelligence, feedstocks, and materials processing. In this Review, we highlight developments in this area and provide a perspective on the potential of this important class of molecules in both fundamental materials science and sustainability.

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Fig. 1: Polypeptide self-assembly across length scales.
Fig. 2: Nucleation pathways for supramolecular protein systems.
Fig. 3: Mechanical properties of polypeptide materials.
Fig. 4: Data-driven methods for understanding and designing polypeptide materials.
Fig. 5: Polypeptide extraction approaches.
Fig. 6: Processing and applications of protein materials.

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Acknowledgements

E.G.W. is funded by the Gates Cambridge Trust. S.K.Y is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Cambridge NanoDTC (EP/S022953/1) and Cambridge Display Technology. T.P.J.K. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ERC grant DiProPhys (agreement ID 101001615), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Frances and Augustus Newman Foundation, and the Centre for Misfolding Diseases. M.J.B and Z.Y. were supported by the Army Research Office (W911NF1920098 and W911NF2220213), the Office of Naval Research (N00014-19-1-2375 and N00014-20-1-2189) and the US Department of Agriculture (2021-69012-35978).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Sarah K. Yorke, Zhenze Yang, Elizabeth G. Wiita.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Sarah K. Yorke, Elizabeth G. Wiita & Tuomas P. J. Knowles

  2. Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Zhenze Yang & Markus J. Buehler

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Zhenze Yang

  4. Xampla, Cambridge, UK

    Ayaka Kamada

  5. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Tuomas P. J. Knowles

  6. Center for Computational Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Markus J. Buehler

  7. Center for Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Markus J. Buehler

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  1. Sarah K. Yorke
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Contributions

S.K.Y., Z.Y. and E.G.W. contributed equally to this work. T.P.J.K. and M.J.B. conceived the Review. All authors contributed to the discussion and writing of the Review.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Tuomas P. J. Knowles or Markus J. Buehler.

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Competing interests

T.P.J.K. is a co-founder of Xampla, a Cambridge University spin-off company focusing on the development of plant based materials. A.K. is a research scientist and shareholder of Xampla. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Reviews Materials thanks Damien Thompson and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Yorke, S.K., Yang, Z., Wiita, E.G. et al. Design and sustainability of polypeptide material systems. Nat Rev Mater 10, 750–768 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-025-00793-3

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