Adsorption of proteins from solution onto man-made surfaces has attracted much attention in the last two decades due to its scientific importance and applications in many areas of science and technology. While in many instances, partitioning of proteins on materials surfaces is undesirable (i.e., buildup of bacterial films on the surfaces of heat exchangers, protein adsorption on food processing equipment, uncontrolled adsorption of proteins at implant surfaces, or marine biofouling on ships), in other situations protein adsorption on man-made surfaces is required (i.e., in the development of artificial organs via tissue engineering on surfaces). In the presentation we will outline methodologies based on creating combinatorial high-throughput surfaces based on grafted macromolecular assemblies that facilitate fast screening of protein adsorption. In particular we will demonstrate that by controlling independently the grafting density and length of polymer grafts, complex orthogonal polymer motifs can be generated that provide insight into the kinetic and thermodynamic control of protein adsorption. We will also outline a simple method of generating functional surfaces by utilizing protein denaturation and adsorption onto hydrophobic surfaces. We will demonstrate that the latter technology can be employed to generate functional polymeric coatings by carrying out "surface-initiated" polymerization directly from the functional-protein primers resting on hydrophobic supports.