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Updated: Feb 24, 2026

Bridging the Bio-Electronic Interface with Biofabrication
Published on: June 6, 2012
Two sides of the coin. Part 2. Colloid and surface science meets real biointerfaces
Barry W Ninham1, Kåre Larsson2, Pierandrea Lo Nostro3
1Department of Applied Mathematics, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia; Department of Chemistry "Ugo Schiff", University of Florence, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy.
Abstract:
Part 1 revisited developments in lipid and surfactant self assembly over the past 40 years [1]. New concepts emerged. Here we explore how these developments can be used to make sense of and bring order to a range of complex biological phenomena. Together with Part 1, this contribution is a fundamental revision of intuition at the boundaries of Colloid Science and Biological interfaces from a perspective of nearly 50 years. We offer new insights on a unified treatment of self assembly of lipids, surfactants and proteins in the light of developments presented in Part 1. These were in the enabling disciplines in molecular forces, hydration, oil and electrolyte specificity; and in the role of non Euclidean geometries-across the whole gammut of physical, colloid and surface chemistry, biophysics and membrane biology and medicine. It is where the early founders of the cell theory of biology and the physiologists expected advances to occur as D'Arcy Thompson predicted us 100 years ago.
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