Synthetic peptide arrays and peptide combinatorial libraries for the exploration of protein-ligand interactions and the design of protein inhibitors

Synthetic peptides have a long tradition as molecular tools in biomedical research and drug discovery. The introduction of high-throughput synthesis and screening technologies for synthetic peptides, such as arrays and combinatorial libraries, enabled the large-scale and detailed exploration of protein-ligand interactions, as well as the discovery of novel biologically active peptides. This review summarizes currently available synthetic peptide array and library technologies, in particular mixture-based peptide libraries, which are illustrated by numerous applications in various fields of biomedical research.