Living organisms produce various membrane-enveloped organic and inorganic particles in the nanometer length scale. Among these particles, exosomes (a bilayer vesicle, extracellular organelle), poly-hydroxyalkanoates (monolayer, intracellular hydroxy-fatty acid granules), and magnetosomes (bilayer, intracellular iron particles) have been widely studied. In order to drive these particles toward biotechnological applications, surface engineering is crucial. Proteins exposed on the surfaces of these particles allow molecular engineers to display potent proteins or peptides of interest on the particles for specific functions. Upon surface protein presentation, such engineered particles can participate in diverse applications from protein purification to target clinical trials. This review article presents a summary of progress in the surface engineering of naturally produced particles in recent years. The concept underlying this surface engineering as well as the fundamentals of the synthesis and recovery of surface-engineered particles are also addressed in this review. The review concludes by highlighting surface engineering aspects that will facilitate further development of these nanoparticles for more applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.