Anne Canning and Arianna Pasquazi developed new polypeptides and studied how variations in the composition of the two amino acids they used affects the ability of the polypeptides to form secondary structures. They showed that by tuning the polymer composition, the extent of secondary structure formation could be controlled. This work gives us a better control over the final properties of polypeptides which are investigated in the Zelzer group as new functional and biomimetic materials. The paper was published in the Journal of Polymer Science A: Polymer Chemistry.