Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
12
Fabrication and Function
of Biohybrid Nanomaterials
Prepared via Supramolecular
Approaches
Katsuhiko Ariga
CONTENTS
12.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................
335
12.2 Lipid-Based Hybrid Nanomaterials....................................................................................
336
12.3 Hybrid Nanomaterials with Other Small Bioactive Molecules ..........................................
341
12.4 Hybrid Nanomaterials with Proteins ..................................................................................
349
12.5 Future Perspectives.............................................................................................................
359
Acknowledgment ...........................................................................................................................
361
References ......................................................................................................................................
361
12.1 INTRODUCTION
Various functional devices have been developed on the basis of recent rapid progress in nano-
technology, which is a methodology to provide nanostructures for fabrication of fi ne devices such
as mechanical machines and information converters, with nanometer-scale structural precision.
Miniaturization of electronic and photonic devices has had an enormous impact on technology and
fueled many important research efforts in the fi eld of materials science. Successful advances in
silicon nanotechnology, such as very large scale integrated circuitry (VLSI) and ultra large scale
integrated circuitry (ULSI), are results of the downscaling of metal oxide semiconductor (MOS)
transistors. Our daily life is actually supported by a variety of nanodevices whose functions depend
upon such highly integrated electronic circuits.
However, in some aspects, current artifi cial technologies are quite inferior to those seen in
naturally occurring systems. For example, a dog can smell and a bat can hear more sensitively than
most artifi cial sensors. Information conversions of brain and nerve systems are much more sophis-
ticated than that of modern computers. We must learn much from biological systems. Biomimetic
approaches in supramolecular chemistry are indispensable for the future direction of our technol-
ogy. Hybridizing functional biomaterials with artifi cial nanostructures, which has developed in the
recent decades, is one of the wisest strategies to utilize natural functions that have been developed
for billions of years (Figure 12.1).
Immobilization of fragile biomaterials into rigid nanostructures can be a highly useful meth-
odology for the stable entrapment of biofunctions, leading to practical usage of biomaterials under
severe conditions. For example, proteins immobilized in mechanically strong nanostructures often
exhibit enhanced stability. The advantage of hybridization of biomaterials with nanostructures is not
limited to such technological aspects. Biomolecules entrapped in nanostructures would experience
335
