The fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between quantum dots (QDs) and photochromic protein bacteriorhodopsin within its natural purple membrane (PM) is explored to monitor their assembling. It is shown that the efficiency of FRET may be controlled by variation of the surface charge and thickness of QD organic coating. Atomic force microscopy imaging revealed correlation between the surface charge of QDs and degree of their ordering on the surface of PM. The most FRET-efficient QD-PM complexes have the highest level of QDs ordering, and their assembling design may be further optimized to engineer hybrid materials with advanced biophotonic and photovoltaic properties. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.