Bioinspired colloidal systems via layer-by-layer assembly.

This paper provides an overview of our recent work in the area of bioinspired colloidal particles. We highlight how modifying the basic polyelectrolyte multilayer shell with materials such as light-absorbing gold nanoparticles, lipid bilayer membranes, and targeting ligands can functionalize colloids prepared the layer-by-layer assembly technique. These nanoengineered colloids are expected to show promise in areas ranging from drug and gene delivery to cell membrane modeling.