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Letter

Nature Materials 7, 800–804 (1 October 2008) | doi:10.1038/nmat2250

Drug-sensing hydrogels for the inducible release of biopharmaceuticals

Martin Ehrbar , Ronald Schoenmakers , Erik H. Christen , Martin Fussenegger & Wilfried Weber

Drug-dependent dissociation or association of cellular receptors represents a potent pharmacologic mode of action for regulating cell fate and function. Transferring the knowledge of pharmacologically triggered protein–protein interactions to materials science will enable novel design concepts for stimuli-sensing smart hydrogels.