Protein assemblies in bacteria a mesh phase

The synthetic copolymers described in the previous section are particularly simple molecules compared to the macromolecules that occur in living systems. Virtually all bio-polymers exhibit some amphiphilic character, due to the presence of polar and lipophilic patches in the single molecule. 

The complex molecular architecture of proteins and enzymes leads to more subtle aggregation properties than those of synthetic copolymers. In particular, the chirality of these biological molecules offers an extra degree of freedom to the self-assembly process. This is discussed in more detail in the next section for now we neglect the effect of chirality. 

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