The design and synthesis of molecularly or supramolecularly defined interfacial architectures have seen in recent years a remarkable growth of interest and scientific research activities for various reasons. On the one hand, it is generally believed that the construction of an interactive interface between the living world of cells, tissue, or whole organisms and the (inorganic or organic) materials world of technical devices such as implants or medical parts requires proper construction and structural (and functional) control of this organism-machine interface. It is still the very beginning of generating a better understanding of what is needed to make an organism tolerate implants, to guarantee bidirectional communication between microelectronic devices and living tissue, or to simply construct interactive biocompatibility of surfaces in general.

This exhaustive book lucidly describes the design, synthesis, assembly and characterization, and bio-(medical) applications of interfacial layers on solid substrates with molecularly or supramolecularly controlled architectures. Experts in the field share their contributions that have been developed in recent years.

Wolfgang Knoll received a PhD in biophysics at the University of Konstanz in 1976. In 1977, he joined the group of Prof. E. Sackmann at the University of Ulm, Germany, working on model membrane systems and their phase behavior by neutron scattering and spectroscopic and thermodynamic measurements. After a postdoctoral stay at the IBM Research Laboratory in San Jose, California (1980-1981), and a stay as a visiting scientist at the Institute Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, he joined the Physics Department of the Technical University of Munich. From 1991 to 1999, he was head of Laboratory for Exotic Nanomaterials hosted by the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Wako, Japan. In 1992, he was appointed consulting professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, California. In 1998, Dr. Knoll was appointed professor of chemistry (by courtesy) at the University of Florida in Gainesville and in 1999 adjunct professor at Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea. From 1999 to 2003 he was a Temasek Professor at the National University of Singapore, and since 2008 is honorary professor at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria, and visiting professor at the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore. Since 2008 he is scientific managing director of the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna, Austria. His current research interests include aspects of the structure/order-property/function relationships of polymeric/organic systems, in particular in thin films and at functionalized surfaces.