This review will recount the origin, evolution, and current status of this extremely versatile assembly technique.
While X-ray crystallography could in principle yield critical snapshots of this versatile assembly line, a definitive view of this movie will undoubtedly require a combination of new kinetic, spectroscopic, and computational tools to understand the workings of this remarkable biosynthetic machinery, representing one of the most exciting frontiers in 21st Century enzymology.
Hierarchical nanostructures are prepared by simple and versatile co-assembly of phosphotungstic acid and dopamine.
At the same time clever colloid design and functionalization concepts allow for versatile particle assembly providing monolayers of macroscopic dimensions.
Progress in predicting and modeling genome-scale metabolic networks, versatile gene assembly platforms and delicate synthetic pathway optimization strategies has provided us exciting opportunities to exploit the full potential of cell metabolism.
Most important, S-layers represent very versatile self-assembly systems which can be exploited as structural basis for a complete supramolecular construction kit, involving all major species of biological macromolecules (e.g. proteins, lipids, glycans, nucleic acids, and combinations of these).
In addition, this strategy may hold great promise for potential applications from DNA biosensing to nanostructure framework construction based on the versatile DNA self-assembly.
Linear external fixators (LEFs) are biomechanically versatile, allow simple assembly and disassembly, and are widely used to treat fractures [ 2].
The resulting nanosized SCL assemblies exhibit versatile structural regulations in a fully reversible manner in response to changes in pH and temperature.
Moreover, the quick and robust self-assembling and the potential to visualize the assembled products in less than one hour together present a uniquely versatile platform for combinatorial assembly of multifunctional proteins.
Layer-by-Layer (LbL) assembly was first introduced by G. Decher [38] in order to achieve superhydrophbic surface, as a versatile method to assemble layered nanostructures with tailored composition and architecture [39].
