Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Biomimetic materials

Polymeric protagonists for biological processes

Nature Chemistry volume 15, pages 751–752 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Complexity is a hallmark of biological systems, but scientific experiments are typically conducted in simplified conditions. Now, diverse polymers that mimic the local environments of complex biological mixtures have been shown to improve protein folding, stability and function.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Random heteropolymers simplify protein sequences.

References

  1. Fulton, A. B. Cell 30, 345–347 (1982).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Minton, A. P. J. Cell Sci. 119, 2863–2869 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Ruan, Z. et al. Nature 615, 251–258 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Panganiban, B. et al. Science 359, 1239–1243 (2018).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Hilburg, S. L., Ruan, Z., Xu, T. & Alexander-Katz, A. Macromolecules 53, 9187–9199 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Jiang, T. et al. Nature 577, 216–220 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Neuman, K. C. & Nagy, A. Nat. Methods 5, 491–505 (2008).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Twitter: @daniellejmai

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Alana P. Gudinas

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Danielle J. Mai

Authors
  1. Alana P. Gudinas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Danielle J. Mai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Danielle J. Mai.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gudinas, A.P., Mai, D.J. Polymeric protagonists for biological processes. Nat. Chem. 15, 751–752 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01219-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01219-9

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing