Press Release 11-226 Manufacturing Goes Viral Researchers coax
viruses to assemble into synthetics with microstructures and
properties akin to those of corneas, teeth and skin October 19,
2011 View a webcast with University of California at Berkeley
bioengineer Seung-Wuk Lee and a YouTube video on self-templating
materials assembly. Using a simple, single-step process,
engineers and scientists at the University of California at
Berkeley recently developed a technique to direct benign,
filamentous viruses called M13 phages to serve as structural
building blocks for materials with a wide range of properties.
By controlling the physical environment alone, the researchers
caused the viruses to self-assemble into hierarchically
organized thin-film structures, with complexity that ranged from
simple ridges, to wavy, chiral strands, to truly sophisticated
patterns of overlapping strings of material--results that may
also shed light on the self-assembly of biological tissues in
nature. Each film presented specific pr