Peptides, both natural and synthetic, are amino acids linked by peptide bonds. They play important roles in many biological processes, acting as biological catalysts, biological messengers, chemical messengers, and intracellular and intercellular mediators. Peptides are intriguing building blocks for a variety of applications in bionanotechnology . Peptides can self-assemble into well-ordered nanostructures. The well-ordered nanostructures can be nanobelts, nanodoughnuts, nanofibers, nanoparticles, nanorods, nanoropes, nanotubes, nanovesicles and more. Among the various nanomorphology forms, peptide nanofibers and nanotubes are relevant in biomedical applications. The self-assembled, nanofiber hydrogels are of great interest as biomaterials for applications in cell culture, drug delivery, immune engineering, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Furthermore, peptide based nanomaterials are used as probes for bioimaging applications. Among all the peptide based biomaterials, ultrashort (≤4 amino acids) peptides are of great interest in recent years because they are cost-effective, simple to prepare, and amenable for production on a large scale. Here, we present an example using ultrashort peptides as bioimaging probes.
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