Natural Biological Assembly at the Nanometric Scale

The following sections are included:

• The Process of Self-Assembly and Self-Organization in Biology

• Organization of Bacterial S-Layers

• Self-Organization of Viruses

• Self-Organization of Phospholipid Membranes

• Fibrillar Cytoskeleton Assemblies

• Nucleic Acids: The Genetic Information Media and a Template for Nanotechnological Applications

• Oligosaccharides and Polysaccharides: Another Class of Biological Polymers

• Amyloid Fibrils as Self-Assembled Nano-Scale Bio-Assemblies

• Silk: Natural Fibrillar Supramolecular Protein Assembly

• Ribosome: The Protein Assembly Line Instrument

• Other Complex Machines in the Genetic Code Expression

• Protein Quality-Control Machinery: The Proteasome

• Biological Nano-Motors: Kinesin and Dynein

• Other Nano-Motors: Flagella and Cilia

• Ion Channels: Nano-Pores of High Specificity