Molecular denaturation of polypeptides and other macromolecules upon surface adsorption from an aqueous environment is almost inevitable. Molecular denaturation, coupled with a net increase in entropy, accounts for the net negative ΔG and frequent irreversible nature of surface adsorption. Real world complications arising from this fundamental biophysical problem include marine fouling of ships' hulls, the progressive obstruction of sewer pipes, inactivated pharmaceutical agents and adverse biological reactions to implanted medical devices. Using self-assembled nanocrystalline particulates with polyhydroxyloligomeric surface films, much of this surface-induced denaturation appears to have been arrested. Beginning with preformed carbon ceramic nanoparticles and self-assembled calcium-phosphate dihydrate particles (colloidal precipitation) to which glassy carbohydrates are then allowed to adsorb as a nanometer thick surface coating, a molecular carrier is formed. The carbohydrate coating functions as a dehydroprotectant and stabilizes subsequently non-covalently bound immobilized members of biochemically reactive surface pairs. The final synthetic product consists of three layers. The core is comprised of the ceramic, the second layer is the dehydroprotectant polyhydroxyloligomer adhesive, and the surface layer is the biochemically reactive molecule for which delivery is desired. Many of the physical properties of this enabling system have been characterized in vitro and in animal models. By all measures at present, the favorable physical properties and biological behavior of the molecular transportation assembly point to an exciting new interdisciplinary area of technology development in materials science, chemistry and biology.