Chapter 12 - Structure, behavior, and manipulation of nanoscale biological assemblies

Abstract

This chapter focuses on three different aspects of biologically derived nanostructured materials. The structure of biological materials is a result of both their chemical composition and their environment. Chemical composition, such as the polypeptide sequence of a protein or the sequence of bases in a nucleic acid strand, is a key determinant of structure. Environment affects the structure of these materials in much more subtle and deterministic ways than most man-made materials. Manipulation of these biomolecular assemblies and the nanomaterials they are used in involves engineering and control at the nanometer-scale. This often means ordering a material by crystallization or confining it to nanometer scale regions through the use of patterning or lithography. The use of scanning probe microscopy in studying biological assemblies, specifically supported biological membranes, nucleic acids, and nucleoprotein complexes have been described. The use of more general protein phospholipid assemblies as nanostructured materials for the study of protein function at interfaces and the development of operational molecular devices is discussed. The use of general surface immobilization techniques to engineer nanostructured materials from functional proteins is also presented. Means of preventing nonspecific interactions must be found if defect-free nanostructures are ever to be achieved. Finally, additional methods must be developed to characterize these systems on the nanometer and angstrom levels if design methods are to be perfected.