Biopolymer-based materials: the nanoscale components and their hierarchical assembly

Protein and nucleic acid biopolymers are well appreciated for their high-performance capabilities for molecular recognition, catalysis and information storage. Increasingly, these biopolymers are being examined for materials applications. Less tractable are polysaccharides and polymers of phenols, which, despite being nature's most abundant macromolecules, remain largely ignored for advanced materials applications. In our opinion, it seems certain that biology will contribute two major capabilities for materials biofabrication — the means to generate biopolymeric components with nanoscale precision, and the mechanisms for the hierarchical assembly of nanocomponents. These capabilities will enable unprecedented control of materials structure and provide exciting opportunities at the convergence of molecular biology and macromolecular science.