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Supramolecular biomaterials

Nature Materials volume 15, pages 13–26 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Polymers, ceramics and metals have historically dominated the application of materials in medicine. Yet rationally designed materials that exploit specific, directional, tunable and reversible non-covalent interactions offer unprecedented advantages: they enable modular and generalizable platforms with tunable mechanical, chemical and biological properties. Indeed, the reversible nature of supramolecular interactions gives rise to biomaterials that can sense and respond to physiological cues, or that mimic the structural and functional aspects of biological signalling. In this Review, we discuss the properties of several supramolecular biomaterials, as well as their applications in drug delivery, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and immunology. We envision that supramolecular biomaterials will contribute to the development of new therapies that combine highly functional materials with unmatched patient- and application-specific tailoring of both material and biological properties.

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Figure 1: Supramolecular biomaterials are tunable, modular, responsive and biomimetic, as a result of the specific, dynamic, interchangeable and reversible motifs used in their design.
Figure 2: Supramolecular biomaterials created through the assembly of molecular stacking motifs and through engineered molecular recognition motifs for the crosslinking of polymeric precursors.
Figure 3: Modular bioactive supramolecular materials.
Figure 4: Recombinant-protein supramolecular nanostructures and hydrogels.
Figure 5: Supramolecular interactions can be harnessed to make supramolecular biomaterials with hierarchically organized structures.
Figure 6: Supramolecular materials can be used as injectable scaffolds that support the survival of therapeutic cell populations.

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Acknowledgements

M.J.W. acknowledges support from the National Institutes of Health (NIDDK) through a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F32DK101335). E.A.A. acknowledges support from a Wellcome Trust–MIT postdoctoral fellowship.

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Author notes

  1. Matthew J. Webber and Eric A. Appel: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    Matthew J. Webber, Eric A. Appel & Robert Langer

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Matthew J. Webber & Robert Langer

  3. Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Eric A. Appel

  4. Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5600 MB, The Netherlands

    E. W. Meijer

  5. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5600 MB, The Netherlands

    E. W. Meijer

  6. Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5600 MB, The Netherlands

    E. W. Meijer

  7. Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    Robert Langer

  8. Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    Robert Langer

  9. Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    Robert Langer

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  1. Matthew J. Webber
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Correspondence to Robert Langer.

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Webber, M., Appel, E., Meijer, E. et al. Supramolecular biomaterials. Nature Mater 15, 13–26 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4474

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