All hydrogels were prepared using either Milli-Q water (with the pH adjusted with 750 mM NaOH solution to approximately pH = 7), phosphate-buffered saline (PBS 10X, pH 7.4) or 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid buffer solution (MES, pH 6.4) at room temperature (25 °C). The 0.5 M MES buffer was prepared by dissolving MES in Milli-Q water and adjusting the pH with 10N NaOH solution. Briefly, pre-weighed peptide powder of P1 and P2 was dissolved in total volume of 1 or 2 mL (depending on the measurement) in Milli-Q water, and then 0.5 equiv. of Zn(OAc) 2 was added to the solution. The vial was vortexed and sonicated for 10-20 sec to achieve a homogenous solution. The pH was then adjusted to approximately 7 using 750 mM NaOH solution. Similarly, buffer-containing hydrogels were prepared using 10% buffer in Milli-Q water and then added 0.5 equiv. of Zn(OAc) 2 . The glass vial, where hydrogels prepared, was vortexed for 10-20 sec to achieve an even distribution of the buffer. Similar hydrogels were prepared also in absence of Zn(OAc) 2 . The vials were kept on the bench, and hydrogel formation was initially observed over time via the vial inversion method and later was verified through rheology (see section 3.3). Collagen hydrogels were prepared by dissolving collagen type I in MQ to a concentration of 0.8 wt% (7.5 mg mL -1 ) for P1 and 1 wt% (9.5 mg mL -1 ) for P2. PBS was then added to achieve 10% PBS concentration in the final solution. The solution was titrated to pH 7.4 using 0.1 M of NaOH. Gelation occurred at 37°C in 1 h. 2.5 Circular Dichroism (CD) CD measurements were conducted on a Chirascan Plus (Applied Photophysics) spectrometer using a quartz cuvette with an optical path length of 0.01 mm. Peptide solutions with concentrations ranging from 2 to 50 mM, dissolved in Milli-Q water or MES buffer, were monitored at room temperature (25 °C) within a wavelength range of 190-280 nm in steps of 1 nm and with a spectral bandwidth of 1 nm. The spectra were acquired as an average of 5 runs for each sample. A baseline correction of all spectra was performed either in Milli-Q water of buffer, depending on the measurement. CD signals were further normalized to the molar ellipticity value.