ABSTRACT
The ubiquity of protein adsorption in natural processes pushes it to a very prominent position among biological phenomena, and its understanding ranks as one of the most essential challenges in the search for the fundamental mechanisms of living processes. Even at the very origins of life, the ordered arrangement of small components via adsorption onto minerals is a serious contender for the emergence of the complex macromolecular assemblies considered to be the precursors of living systems. As far as contemporary cells are concerned, it suffices to recall the classic experiments of Kempner and Miller [1,2], in which, provided the cells are not homogenized according to standard biochemical protocols, centrifugation results in a cytosol practically devoid of proteins and other macromolecules, thus convincingly demonstrating that practically all enzymes are located at or in the lipid membranes pervading (eukaryotic) cells. In living matter, protein adsorption to lipid membranes is the most widely considered process, but if additionally adsorption to DNA is considered, then protein adsorption encompasses most of the regulatory processes controlling gene expression. Blood clotting is the result of an exquisitely orchestrated sequence of protein adsorption events [3]. Furthermore, the adsorption of proteins is usually a prerequisite to the adsorption of cells and multicellular organisms to different kinds of surfaces; this aspect encompasses phenomena as diverse as the assembly of primitive multicellular organisms, the immune response, the growth of neurones and neurites, the attachment of mussels and limpets to rocks, the formation of biofilms by bacteria, etc.
