redox reactions and electrochemistry. Other units, such as benzidine derivatives, viologens, and fullerenes, are useful in supramolecular electrochemical devices. Biologically-derived units The extremely strong complexation between avidin and biotin is instrumental in blood clotting, and has been used as the recognition motif to construct synthetic systems. The binding of enzymes with their cofactors has been used as a route to produce modified enzymes, electrically contacted enzymes, and even photoswitchable enzymes. DNA has been used both as a structural and as a functional unit in synthetic supramolecular systems. Applications Materials technology Supramolecular chemistry has found many applications, in particular molecular self-assembly processes have been applied to the development of new materials. Large structures can be readily accessed using bottom-up synthesis as they are composed of small molecules requiring fewer steps to synthesize. Thus most of the bottom-up approaches to nanotechnology are based on supramolecular chemistry. Many smart materials are based on molecular recognition. Catalysis A major application of supramolecular chemistry is the design and understanding of catalysts and catalysis. Non-covalent interactions are extremely important in catalysis, binding reactants into conformations suitable for reaction and lowering the transition state energy of reaction. Template-directed synthesis is a special case of supramolecular catalysis. Encapsulation systems such as micelles, dendrimers, and cavitands are also used in catalysis to create microenvironments suitable for reactions (or steps in reactions) to progress that is not possible to use on a macroscopic scale. Medicine Design based on supramolecular chemistry has led to numerous applications in the creation of functional biomaterials and therapeutics. Supramolecular biomaterials afford a number of modular and generalizable platforms with tunable mechanical, chemical and biological properties. These include systems based on supramolecular assembly of peptides, host–guest macrocycles, high-affinity hydrogen bonding, and metal–ligand interactions. A supramolecular approach has been used extensively to create artificial ion channels for the transport of sodium and potassium ions into and out of cells. Supramolecular chemistry is also important to the development of new pharmaceutical therapies by understanding the interactions at a drug binding site. The area of drug delivery has also made critical advances as a result of supramolecular chemistry providing encapsulation and targeted release mechanisms. In addition, supramolecular systems have been designed to disrupt protein–protein interactions that are important to cellular function. Data storage and processing Supramolecular chemistry has been used to demonstrate computation functions on a molecular scale. In many cases, photonic or chemical signals have been used in