LAUSR

Our efforts to build devices that integrate and interact intimately with biology have led to concepts such as “biofabrication” and “4D printing,” exhibiting the desire to mimic nature and indeed incorporate natural products into structures that provide enhanced function, especially in their ability to interact with, signal with, or even communicate with biology. In this special issue of Biotechnology Journal, we invited several leading scholars to provide articles that describe efforts to exploit biological materials for assembly, and to harness or mimic biological assembly processes to build components and systems of advanced function. This issue is an outgrowth of the stimulating meeting held in Akita Japan in the fall of 2017: “The 8th International Conference on Materials Engineering for Resources” hosted by Drs. Kazuo Otsuka, Yoshio Nagai, Noboru Yoshimura, and Fumio Hamada (honorary chairpersons), Dr. Atsushi Shibayama (Akita U., General Chairperson), and Drs. Mitsutoshi Jikei and Takeshi Gotoh (Akita U., Executive committee). The elegant feature of biology that encapsulates the concepts of biomimetics and bioinspiration is the selfassembly of molecules into functional systems at the dimensions of nanometers. Nonetheless, bioinspiration is usually interpreted as providing some biological-like characteristics that can be used to guide the synthesis of materials into functional devices and processes. Then, the result is the development of biotechnology systems that are based increasingly on the application of nanotechnology processes to create smaller objects. However, that interpretation overlooks the important concept that biology utilizes self-assembly of molecules to create elegant nanostructured systems. A central feature of such biological nanostructured systems is the assembly of phospholipid bilayer membranes that both provide compartments (i.e., biological cells) to rationalize the overall function of complex organisms (e.g., plants, animals) and also to provide an environment in which to stabilize proteins to assist in the sensing and actuating functions of biological cells. Thus, an alternative approach to developing biotechnology systems is through harnessing the bioinspired self-assembly of biological molecules to develop nanostructured biomimetic systems. Clearly, to make practical biotechnology systems does continue to require some aspects of materials synthesis, including polymers, metals, and ceramics. It follows that this approach to bioinspiration and biomimetic biotechnology will result in hybrid systems comprising synthetic materials that support and integrate self-assembled biological components. That approach to bioinspiration and biomimetic biotechnology is exemplified by the publications in this special issue. Devillard et al. describe the cutting-edge use of 4D