β‐Peptides: Novel Secondary Structures Take Shape

Why don't we live in β-peptide world? This is a legitimate question in light of new findings by D. Seebach et al. and S. Gellman et al. on the secondary structures of β-peptides. Peptides composed of less than ten β-amino acid residues can from stable, secondary structure motifs like the 31-M-helix shown on the right. In one study a hepta-β-peptide, which had been thermally denatured, refolded with-in 200 ps!