Active biological molecules and functional structures can be fabricated into biomimetic systems by using molecular assembly method. Such materials can be used for the drug delivery disease diagnosis and therapy and new nanodevice construction. With the financial supports of Chinese Academy of Science MOST and National Natural Science Foundation CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid Interface Science and Chemical Thermodynamics collaborated with Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces have made a progress in the molecular motor assembly of biomimetic system. The work has been published in the recent issue of Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2007 46 6996-7000).

In the last few years this group has made some progress in constructing biomimetic membrane by using “self-assembly” and “layer-by-layer assembly” technqiues (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 40 (2001) 891; Chem. Eur. J. 9 (2003) 2589; Soft Matter 1 (2005) 259; Biomacromolecules 7 (2006) 580；Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 354 (2007) 357). Such biomimetic membranes have potential applications in gene and drug delivery and controlled release. (Chem. Eur. J. 10 (2004) 5848；Biomaterials 28 (2007) 3083；Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 46 (2007) 2431).

The group has reported a novel biomimetic system with the assembly of F_oF₁ ATPase in lipid-modified microcapsules. The well-defined microcapsules may serve as containers for the storage of the synthesized ATP as an energy currency. By using this system it becomes possible to study the function of ATPase as a biomimetic unit in detail. Furthermore the synthesized ATP could be released from the assembled capsules to provide energy on demand. Hence a micrometer-sized energy-storage device has been built up.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2007 46 6996-7000).