We present a theoretical study of the structural and optical properties of tripeptide-silver cluster hybrid systems which shows that silver clusters induce significant absorption enhancement in the spectral region between 225 and 350 nm with respect to the pure peptide. This allows the use of clusters as chromophores for absorption enhancement of peptides and proteins and offers a potential for different applications in biosensing. Furthermore, we demonstrate that cluster binding can change the conformational preference for the secondary structure type leading possibly to new functional properties.