On the strategy of directed assembly and its relevance to ageing

The strategy which Nature has chosen to generate complex, asymmetric structures has been to build on previously established structures and to render the internal chemistry asymmetric by a close association with asymmetrically distributed, stable topological organizers. This is what we call the strategy of directed assembly. Ageing and the strategy of directed assembly seem to be general for biological systems displaying history-dependent development. We believe that it is this strategy which imposes severe limitations on topological organizer turnover rates and, therefore plays a major role in initiating the ageing process.