Scope and Content of the Symposium 

    Self-assembly is important to many technological areas including novel material design and synthesis (smart responsive materials, self-healing materials), nanomedicine (drug delivery, imaging and molecular diagnostics, theranostics), personal care products (including cosmetics and detergents), and micro/nano fabrication processes.  Self-assembly is also a phenomenon occurring in biological (human) systems controlling life as well as dysfunction.

​

    Self-assembly was first recognized in classical colloid science almost 100 years ago, with the discovery of spontaneous formation of multimolecular aggregates of soap molecules. For almost eighty years, selfassembly studies were dominated by classical soap and surfactant molecules. Over the last decade, the study of self assembly has emerged as a distinct field, encompassing much larger and complex molecular and nanoparticle systems.  This will be captured in this symposium, by its focus on a wide range of selfassembled nanoparticle systems with the fundamental emphasis on imparting biofunctionality.

​

    Proposed topics would include experiments, theory, computer simulations and applications related to self-assembled nanoparticles systems incorporating surfactants, block copolymers, peptides, proteins, nanoparticles, monolayers, liquid crystals, micelles, vesicles, microemulsions, dendrimers, polymerprotein conjugates, peptide amphiphiles, DNA amphiphiles, etc., and exhibiting biofunctionality.  The topics would highlight interdisciplinary research combining chemistry, physics, biology, and material science.

​

    Self assembly of molecules to create nanoparticles, self-assembly of nanoparticles to create new materials or devices, self-assembly in biological cell and its components contributing to essential life functions, self-assembly of proteins leading to neurodegenerative diseases, and self-assembly of molecules/particles for nanomedicine applications of drug delivery and diagnostics have all made selfassembly a topic of great importance and have assured its continuing growth.  This symposium will assess the state of the art understanding of these diverse systems where self-assembled biofunctional nanomaterials are the key actors.  

​

    The 2020 symposium seeks to highlight this critical area of science and technology by building upon the symposium on the same theme organized at the 2015 Pacifichem.  The 2015 symposium attracted 89 presentations.  Of these, 59 oral presentations were given in five regular half-day sessions and 2 evening sessions.  The remaining 30 papers were presented as posters in a poster session.  There already exists a significant research community interested in participating and contributing to this theme at the 2020 Pacifichem.  The organizers from the 2015 Pacifichem have all agreed to be co-organizers for the 2020 Pacifichem.