"Recent developments in genomics and proteomics have generated an urgent need for new methods of interrogating and targeting biochemical networks. In particular new means of interfering with protein-protein interactions are in high demand and of considerable therapeutic potential. New materials are needed that can recognise and bind to specific protein surfaces. We aim to develop a new approach to the recognition of proteins using individual nanoparticles and dynamic networks of nanoparticles. This requires the development of: 1. Functional nanoparticles capable of selectively recognising proteins. We will explore the potential of dynamic combinatorial chemistry to direct the functionalisation of the surface of the nanoparticles. 2. A means of translating nanoparticle-protein interactions into a signal. Our approach is to use nanoparticle networks that respond to the presence of proteins with a redistribution of their surface functionalisation, which, in turn, produces an optical readout through fluorescence resonance energy transfer. The project is critically dependent on the host's expertise on dynamic combinatorial chemistry and the applicant's expertise on the characterisation of nanostructures. The expected outcome is a conceptually new means of interfacing functional nanoparticles with biomolecules, based on an innovative molecular network approach. This systems chemistry strategy breaks with the reductionist tradition that has characterised most research in chemistry for the last centuries."