Abstract
Biomaterials, traditionally defined as materials used in medical devices, have been used since antiquity, but recently their degree of sophistication has increased significantly. Biomaterials made today are routinely information rich and incorporate biologically active components derived from nature. In the future, biomaterials will assume an even greater role in medicine and will find use in a wide variety of non-medical applications through biologically inspired design and incorporation of dynamic behaviour.
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Acknowledgements
We thank D. Ingber for discussions. We acknowledge funding from the US National Institutes of Health (National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research). N.H. is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
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Reprints and permissions information is available at http://www.nature.com/reprints. The authors declare no competing financial interests. Correspondence should be addressed to D.J.M. (mooneyd@seas.harvard.edu).
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Huebsch, N., Mooney, D. Inspiration and application in the evolution of biomaterials. Nature 462, 426–432 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08601
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08601
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