The focus of this invention is the combined use of: i) one or more biological agents to promote the precipitation of one or more desired solids onto ii) a biologically-assembled 3-D microscale-to-nanoscale structure. That is, the solid precipitation and the 3-D structural assembly are both conducted with the aid of biology. The biologically-derived 3-D structures may assembled by a biological organism, by a component of a biological organism, by a biological molecule, or by combinations thereof. One or more biological agents is/are used to promote the precipitation of one or more new solids onto the biologically-derived 3-D structure.