The past two decades have seen growing recognition of the importance of the surface chemical structures of artificial substrata in determining their interactions with mammalian tissue cells. Polymer surfaces have been of particular interest because of their widespread applications. However, they are extremely complex and difficult to characterise, with the result that the inherent complexity of the biological phenomenon has been convoluted with uncertainty about polymer surface structure. The emergence of self-assembled monolayers, or SAMs, formed by the adsorption of alkanethiols onto gold surfaces, has promised to transform this situation by making available chemically robust, well-defined substrata that may be extensively characterised by a plethora of analytical methods. Effectively, uncertainty about the surface structure has been removed from the scientific problem, enabling attention to be focused on understanding the biological phenomena. Results will be presented from studies involving murine 3T3 fibroblasts and human osteoblasts. The influence of surface chemical composition on cell attachment will be described. It will be demonstrated that cell attachment is influenced by rather subtle changes in surface chemical structure. Rates of cell attachment, variations in cell morphology and cytoskeletal organisation are all influenced by the surface chemical structure. Combination of SAM preparation methods with simple photolithographic processes enables the fabrication of micropatterned substrata that may be utilised to guide cell attachment. By a judicious selection of pattern geometry and surface chemistry, it is possible to control not only the location of cell attachment and the degree of spreading, but also the organisation of cytoskeletal features. Such studies may yield valuable insights into the parameters that control cellular interactions with artificial materials, and may lead to the development of novel materials for specific applications.