Fabrication of molecular materials using peptide construction motifs.

Biotechnology has generally been associated with gene cloning and expression, genomics, high throughput drug discovery, biomedical advancement and agricultural development. That is about to change. Biotechnology will expand to encompass discovery and fabrication of biological and molecular materials with diverse structures, functionalities and utilities. The advent of nanobiotechnology and nanotechnology have accelerated this trend. Analogous to the construction of an intricate architectural structure, diverse and numerous structural motifs are used to assemble a sophisticated complex. Nature has selected, produced and evolved numerous molecular architectural motifs over billions of years for particular functions. These molecular motifs can now be used to build materials from the bottom up. Biotechnology will continue to harness nature's enormous power to benefit other disciplines and society as a whole.