TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - BIOTECHNOLOGY - Preferred Components: The virus includes a protein having an affinity for the substrate, and/or the microscale features. The surface (S1) further comprises a first coating over the surface, and a second coating over the first coating. The first coating is metallic, and the second coating is a metal oxide. The surface further comprises a third coating over the second coating. The third coating is a hydrophobic material. The virus is a tobacco mosaic virus. The tobacco mosaic virus includes at least one genetically engineered mutation. The mutation favors the virus binding perpendicularly to a surface. Preferred Process: The process (M1) further involves: applying a first coating over the surface, where the first coating is metallic; applying a second coating of a metal oxide over the first coating; and applying a third coating of a hydrophobic material over the second coating. EXAMPLE - SU-8 10 (RTM: photo-definable negative resist) was spin-coated to a thickness of 15 mm on a silicon wafer and exposed to create micropost arrays. The wafer was then diced into individual 2 cm by 2 cm die. The die was placed in a phosphate buffer solution (pH 7) containing the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) at a concentration of 0.1 mg/ml and allowed to incubate overnight while the virus self-assembled on the exposed silicon and SU-8 surfaces. After TMV assembly, the surface-exposed cysteines residues of the virus were activated with a palladium catalyst in a solution prepared by mixing a palladium salt with phosphate buffer. The samples were then coated with nickel in an electroless plating solution in which they were immersed for 3-5 minutes. The catalyst solution was prepared by dissolving NaPdCl4 (29 mg) in water (10 ml). The nickel plating solution was prepared by mixing NiCl2 (0.6 g), glycine (0.45 g), Na2B4O7 (1.5 g), dimethylamino borane (DMAB) (0.77 g) and water (25 ml) and stirring until solution reached pH 7. After metallization, the surfaces were functionalized through atomic layer deposition (ALD) of Al2O3 followed by vapor-phase deposition of silane to achieve superhydrophobic properties. A uniform 15 nm thick Al2O3 was deposited using alternate pulse sequence. ALD provided excellent uniformity and a coating conformal to the nanoscale features of the virus. The silane monolayer was formed on the Al2O3 surface at room temperature with the samples exposed to vapor-phase (tridecofluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrooctyl)-1-trichlorosilane for 40 minutes to obtain micro- and nano-scale superhydrophobic surface structures with static contact angle greater than 170 degrees .