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:

ENGINEERED LIVING MATERIALS

Self-healing through adhesion

Nature Chemical Biology volume 18, pages 239–240 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

The design of biological materials with tunable properties is an emerging challenge for the twenty-first century. A new approach to direct engineered cells to stick together improves biomaterial performance and simplifies self-healing.

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: Cell–cell adhesion tools for materials.

References

  1. Nguyen, P. Q., Courchesne, N.-M. D., Duraj-Thatte, A., Praveschotinunt, P. & Joshi, N. S. Adv. Mater. 30, 1704847 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Gilbert, C. et al. Living materials with programmable functionalities grown from engineered microbial co-cultures. Nat. Mater. 20, 691–700 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Rivera-Tarazona, L. K., Campbell, Z. T. & Ware, T. H. Soft Matter 17, 785–809 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Srubar, W. V. Trends Biotechnol. 39, 574–583 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Chen, B. & Dai, Z. Nat. Chem. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00934-z (2021).

  6. Caro-Astorga, J., Walker, K. T., Herrera, N., Lee, K.-Y. & Ellis, T. Nat. Commun. 12, 5027 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Schaffner, M., Rühs, P. A., Coulter, F., Kilcher, S. & Studart, A. R. Sci. Adv. 3, eaao6804 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Glass, D. S. & Riedel-Kruse, I. H. Cell 174, 649–658.e16 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Joaquin Caro-Astorga & Tom Ellis

Authors
  1. Joaquin Caro-Astorga
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tom Ellis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tom Ellis.

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

Caro-Astorga, J., Ellis, T. Self-healing through adhesion. Nat Chem Biol 18, 239–240 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00946-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00946-9

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research