The engineering of materials containing biological structure offers the promise of new devices and processes of great potential impact on the quality of human life. The Van Tassel research group at Yale University seeks to understand, predict, and control the incorporation of biomolecular or biomimetic entities onto or within synthetic materials. The focus is on problems involving biomolecules at interfaces, nanofilm biomaterials, macromolecular adsorption under electric potential, and molecular templating – and employs a balanced blend of theory, computer simulation, and experiment.