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.