ABSTRACT
Large-scale manufacturing, using highly automated and controlled fabrication processes, achieves
consistency, reliability, and low cost, which have been the keys to mass-produce many important
inventions in modern history. For example, the mass production of transistors led to the creation of
integrated circuits (ICs), serving as the foundation of modern electronics, computers, and the Internet;
the use of assembly lines with standardized parts revolutionized the automobile industry and fostered a
century of economical, personalized transportation. The promise of modern therapeutics such as
penicillin was realized through large-scale fermentation processes, and saved millions of lives. Over
the last few decades, many aspects of manufacturing have undergone tremendous development such
as the miniaturization of electronic components to the nanometer length scale, enabling as many as
150 million transistors in a computer processor (nanofabrication) [1], the control and precision of
machining down to the micro-and nanoscale (nanomachining) [2], and the development of methods
to engineer bioprocesses and bioproducts (biotechnology) [3]. The convergence of these formerly dispar-
ate endeavors is currently spawning a new discipline, bionanomanufacturing, which addresses the ma-
nipulation of and fabrication with biological and biomimetic molecules at the nanometer length scale.
Bionanomanufacturing seeks to create novel molecular ensembles and devices by mass production, and
attempts to integrate inorganic and organic components to create new properties and functions.
