[en] The invention relates to a method for the detection of asbestos in a sample, comprising the steps of: (a) contacting a sample with one or more asbestos-binding peptides having from 5 to about 50 amino acids, comprising an amino acid sequence selected from D A V P I F M (SEQ ID NO:1), E L A N Q S L (SEQ ID NO:2), T Y A L P T T (SEQ ID NO:3), A D I R H I K (SEQ ID NO:4), L E T V V S S (SEQ ID NO:5) Q V N G L G E R S Q Q M (SEQ ID NO:6), and/or one or more asbestos-binding peptides having from 5 to about 50 amino acids comprising a motif selected from S/T X S/T or S/T X X S/T, wherein S/T means either serine or threonine amino acid in the sequence and X can be any of the proteinogenic amino acids, and in the motif S/T X X S/T, both X are the same or a different proteinogenic amino acid (b) detecting the presence of peptides bound to asbestos fibers. The invention further relates to asbestos-binding peptides, fused asbestos-binding peptides and to a kit for carrying out the above detection method.
