Systems biology articles within Nature Materials

Featured

• Article
  26 May 2022 | Open Access

  3D printed protein-based robotic structures actuated by molecular motor assemblies

  Three-dimensional printed protein-based robotic structures are actuated by exoskeleton-like coats of molecular motor assemblies upon the spatially targeted release of chemical fuel, resulting in micrometre-scale shape-morphing activity.

  • Haiyang Jia
  • , Johannes Flommersfeld
  •  & Petra Schwille

• Editorial | 31 March 2022

  Materials come alive

  The dissemination of synthetic biology into materials science is creating an evolving class of functional, engineered living materials that can grow, sense and adapt similar to biological organisms.

• News & Views | 31 March 2022

  Living building blocks

  A prototypical biocomposite block comprising a blend of bacteria, fungi and feedstock can be assembled into human-sized, living structures with self-healing and environmental sensing capabilities.

  • Kwok Soon Wun
  • , In Young Hwang
  •  & Matthew Wook Chang

• Perspective | 31 March 2022

  The living interface between synthetic biology and biomaterial design

  This Perspective reviews the complementary developments in synthetic biology and biomaterials and discusses how convergence of these two fields creates a promising design strategy for the fabrication of tailored living materials for medicine and biotechnology.

  • Allen P. Liu
  • , Eric A. Appel
  •  & Ovijit Chaudhuri

• Article | 02 December 2021

  Engineering living and regenerative fungal–bacterial biocomposite structures

  Lignocellulosic waste is transformed into fungal–bacterial biocomposites that can be processed into recyclable, human-scale structural objects with biosynthetic and sensing–reporting functionalities.

  • Ross M. McBee
  • , Matt Lucht
  •  & Harris H. Wang

• Article | 11 January 2021

  Living materials with programmable functionalities grown from engineered microbial co-cultures

  A symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast is used to fabricate bacterial cellulose-based living materials that respond to external cues and adapt their structural and functional properties, with implications for sensing and catalytic applications.

  • Charlie Gilbert
  • , Tzu-Chieh Tang
  •  & Tom Ellis

• Editorial | 12 December 2018

  Awards for manipulating technologies

  The 2018 Nobel prizes in chemistry and medicine celebrate tools for engineering biological materials.

• Article | 20 March 2017

  Colony stimulating factor-1 receptor is a central component of the foreign body response to biomaterial implants in rodents and non-human primates

  By studying the immune responses of animals to different types of biomaterial implants, colony stimulating factor-1 receptor is revealed as an important mediator of the foreign body reaction and a possible target for fibrosis inhibition.

  • Joshua C. Doloff
  • , Omid Veiseh
  •  & Daniel G. Anderson