Mother Nature provides invaluable lessons in the design of molecular materials with enormous variety of biological and engineering functionalities and, concurrently, permits us to genetically design molecular systems for a wide range of practical applications in physical and medical technologies. Among the fundamental building blocks in biology, polypeptides (and proteins) are versatile molecules with immense information content. Proteins, based on amino acid compositions and specific sequences, have defined molecular conformations and recognitions that have evolved with predictable self-assembly and functionality. In the transformational new field of molecular biomimetics, using biocombinatorial selection and engineered evolution, our Center designs material-specific peptides and tailors their structure-property coupling for better and more specific functions, including recognition, binding, and assembly, all quantitatively assessed experimentally (SPR, QCM, CD, NMR, and AFM) and computationally (bioinformatics and computational chemistry/physics/biology). At the confluence of materials, biology and information/computational fields, therefore, our Center uses genetic engineering and mutagenesis to device the control of molecular architectures of hybrid systems, develop multiple repeats, modular conjugation, and fusion for spatial formations with simultaneous bio- and nano-multifunctionality. The peptide-based molecular constructs have novel utility as synthesizers, assemblers, and molecular erectors in the controlled bioinorganic nanomaterial formation (nanotechnology and regenerative medicine), bio-matrices (for deliverable bioscaffolds), directed immobilization for bioassays and bioenergetics, and molecular probes (for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases) for better technology and better lives. The research is supported mainly by NSF via MRSEC, but also through NIH.