Peptidomimetics and the template approach to nucleation of beta-sheets and alpha-helices in peptides.

Introducing structural constraints into engineered analogs of natural proteins is important for defining essential characteristics, such as specificity or stability, of the protein. This may be achieved by the use of peptidomimetics--elements which mimic the structure of natural peptide components, or conformational templates which induce specific structure formation in contiguous peptide sequence.