Biological nanostructures

Although much of the interest in biological nanostructures has focused on relatively complex functionality, cells and organisms themselves can be considered as a collection of self-assembled materials lipid bilayers, the extracellular matrix, tendon and connective tissue, skin, spider silk, cotton fiber, wood, and bone are all self-assembled biological materials, with an internal structure hierarchically ordered from the molecular to the macroscopic scale. 

Stroscio MA, Dutta M, eds. Biological Nanostructures and Applications of Nanostructures in Biology. New York Kluwer Academic Publishers. 

Lowe, C.R., Nanobiotechnology the fabrication and applications of chemical and biological nanostructures. Curr Opin Struct Biol 2000, 10, 428-434. 

A prevalent use for the nanoporous membranes detailed previously, particularly the highly ordered structure of alumina, is to fabricate reproducible nanoscale materials through a method called template synthesis. Briefly, the composition material of desired nanostructures is grown or deposited into a nanoporous membrane the new nanostructures are then separated from the original membrane via mechanical or chemical means. Dependent on the synthetic approach used, this process can produce nanoscale arrays " or individual nanostructures like wires, nanotubes or nanoparticles. Template synthesis also has been used to produce biological nanostructures through the deposition of biomolecules into nanoporous membranes. For a more detailed explanation on... 

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