Bio/technological and biomaterial applications of self assembly

Two research areas currently under study, lipid-based tubules and optical nanolithography, are highlighted, and the potential technological impact of the work is discussed. One of the first efforts in the liposome field was to try to improve liposome performance by making them stronger and more stable, so that they would be less likely to break open or leak their contents when sheared, heated or subjected to other forms of stress. This was achieved by cross-linking. Exposed lipid headgroups on the tubule surface proved to be susceptible to the attachment of catalysts, which allowed the microstructures to be electrolessly coated with metal. Once the lipid structures have been metalized, the resulting microstructures are quite robust, and compatible with most material environments. An optical lithography process has been developed and described for fabrication of high-resolution microstructures of metal and other materials on a variety of substrates. The process has applications in numerous areas of microcircuit lithography