The TASP (template assembled synthetic protein) concept in protein de novo design has been introduced for the construction of protein-like mols. exhibiting tailor-made functional properties. After establishing some synthetic and conformational foundations in TASP strategy, a 4a-helix bundle TASP mol. mimicking immunol. properties of human MHC-I is described. Furthermore, structural motifs (e.g. topol. templates) disposing functional groups in defined spatial positions as candidates to mimic structural and conformational features of peptides and proteins for mol. recognition studies are emphasized. [on SciFinder (R)]