Bioinspired materials articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrating heterogeneous single atom nanozyme (SAzyme) configurations and homogeneous enzyme-like mechanism is promising for optimizing SAzymes but elusive. Here the authors address this issue by developing a spatial engineering strategy to fabricate dual-sites SAzymes incorporating single atom Fe active centers (Fe–N4) and Cu atomic sites (Cu–N4) in a vertically stacked Fe–N4 and Cu–N4 geometry.

    • Ying Wang
    • , Vinod K. Paidi
    •  & Kwok-Yin Wong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Emulating the killing function of neutrophils, which involves the enzymatic cascade of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and myeloperoxidase (MPO), is promising for cancer therapy, but developing SOD-MPO cascade in one nanozyme is challenging. Here the authors report ultrasmall AuPd alloy nanozymes that mimic neutrophil enzymatic cascades for catalytic treatment of tumors.

    • Xiangqin Meng
    • , Huizhen Fan
    •  & Kelong Fan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is elusive to manufacture room temperature phosphorescent (RTP) materials through effective and ambient processing approaches. Here the authors report the production of photocured RTP materials using lignosulfonate to act as RTP chromophore and photoinitiator, achieving easy preparation, low cost and good performance.

    • Hongda Guo
    • , Mengnan Cao
    •  & Zhijun Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The abatement of elemental mercury remains an enormous challenge for public health and ecosystems. Here, inspired by the seleno-mercury antagonism effect in biological systems, the authors developed an ideal Hg0 adsorbent with a record-high adsorption capacity of 1621.9 mg g−1.

    • Hailong Li
    • , Fanyue Meng
    •  & Jianping Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Assembly of amyloids is important in neurodegenerative diseases, but there is limited understanding of how supramolecular chirality is controlled. Here, the authors report the design of peptide derivatives that allow chirality inversion at biologically relevant temperatures.

    • Stephen J. Klawa
    • , Michelle Lee
    •  & Ronit Freeman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soft robots have potential in carrying out underwater tasks, but achieving the right level of adhesion and shape-changing ability is challenging. Here, the authors report the development of protein-based hydrogels with iron oxide nanoparticles with photothermal and magnetic responsiveness, capable of carrying out complex tasks.

    • Sheng-Chen Huang
    • , Ya-Jiao Zhu
    •  & Zhi-Gang Qian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mineralization is common in biological materials for selective strengthening, but similar toughening in polymer composites is challenging. Here, the authors report a mechanically-mediated reaction for formation of mineralized microrods within a synthetic material.

    • Jorge Ayarza
    • , Jun Wang
    •  & Aaron P. Esser-Kahn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ice formation on grooved surfaces is ubiquitous, but controlling orientation is difficult due to lack of mechanistic insight. Here, the authors observed oriented growth using graphene oxide nanosheets as probes, revealing the effect of groove size, and programmed ice growth to fabricate freeze-cast metamaterials.

    • Meng Li
    • , Nifang Zhao
    •  & Hao Bai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The oral delivery of nano-drug delivery systems (Nano-DDS) remains challenging. Here the authors construct core–shell mesoporous silica nanoparticles with virus-like nanospikes and demonstrate the versatility of these nanoparticles as Nano-DDS to achieve efficient oral drug delivery by mimicking structural feature, chiral recognition, and gene encapsulation of viruses.

    • Zhentao Sang
    • , Lu Xu
    •  & Heran Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current techniques for visualizing cell generated forces suffer from throughput limitations. Here, Gu et al. introduced photonic crystal cellular force microscopy, inspired by chameleons, enabling visualization and quantification of vertically directed cell forces, well-suited for drug screening.

    • Qiwei Li
    • , Zaozao Chen
    •  & Zhongze Gu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is needed yet difficult to achieve a strategy for synthesizing single-atom nanozymes that integrate atomic metal dispersion, elevated mass transport and tailorable coordination environment. Here, the authors address this issue by developing a biomimetic synthetic strategy and demonstrate the application of the resultant single-atom Fe nanozymes for tumor visual identification.

    • Da Chen
    • , Zhaoming Xia
    •  & Yongquan Qu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Psoriasis is a common inflammatory disease, and the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in skin lesions plays a critical role in the progress of psoriasis. Here, the authors report the use of multienzyme-inspired biomimetic iron single-atom catalysts (FeN4O2-SACs) with broad-spectrum ROS-scavenging capability for psoriasis treatment and relapse prevention via related gene restoration.

    • Xiangyu Lu
    • , Le Kuai
    •  & Jianlin Shi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rational design has endowed self-assembling peptides with structural similarities to natural materials, but recreating the dynamic functional properties inherent to natural systems remains challenging. Here the authors report the discovery of a short peptide based on the tryptophan zipper motif, that shows multiscale hierarchical ordering into hydrogels that display emergent dynamic properties.

    • Ashley K. Nguyen
    • , Thomas G. Molley
    •  & Kristopher A. Kilian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Architected materials can have enhanced properties compared to bulk but are difficult to design. Here the authors propose a machine-learning-based pipeline to design architected materials with predetermined elastic modulus and enhanced yield strength and test it in additive manufacturing.

    • Bo Peng
    • , Ye Wei
    •  & Peng Wen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The neurotoxicity of organophosphate compounds damages nerve system by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase (AChE) expression, but it is difficult to overcome the deactivation of AChE. Here, the authors report the design of Lewis acid sites in metal-organic frameworks as AChE mimics for effective neuroprotection.

    • Weiqing Xu
    • , Xiaoli Cai
    •  & Chengzhou Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manipulating the internal interactions within biological fibers to tune macroscopic properties is important but challenging, and can limit applications. Here, the authors report the use of dynamic imine chemistry for engineering molecular interactions and forming strong and tough protein fibers.

    • Jing Sun
    • , Haonan He
    •  & Kai Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The material-based evolution of organisms has attracted broad interdisciplinary interest, however, the fabrication of material-integrated organelles remains inadequately exploited. Here the authors engineer a bioartificial organism by integrating a semiartificial and specific virus-scavenging organelle to scavenge pathogenic waterborne viruses.

    • Huixin Li
    • , Yanpeng Xu
    •  & Ruikang Tang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work, the authors report the appearance of vacuoles within the droplets of an enzyme-driven biomolecular liquid. The mechanisms of these behaviors are quantitatively explained with a diffusive capture model of enzyme dynamics.

    • Omar A. Saleh
    • , Sam Wilken
    •  & Tim Liedl

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Melanin-like materials are becoming important for surface biofunctionalization due to versatile adhesion, but are challenging to prepare in a site-specific manner. Here, the authors report a method using progressive assembly on a catalytic template, for site-specific fabrication and patterning of melanin-like pigments.

    • Haejin Jeong
    • , Jisoo Lee
    •  & Seonki Hong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite widely used in the construction sector, Portland cement’s high brittleness and low toughness still pose challenges in some applications. Here, authors apply an ice-templating method to fabricate a cement-hydrogel composite with alternating layered microstructure resulting in significantly increased toughness.

    • Yuan Chen
    • , Yangzezhi Zheng
    •  & Changwen Miao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving a form of coupling between molecular content, chemical reactions, and chassis in synthetic compartments represents a key step to the assembly of evolvable protocells but remains challenging. Here, the authors design coacervate droplets that promote non-enzymatic oligonucleotide polymerization and that restructure as a result of the reaction dynamics.

    • Tommaso P. Fraccia
    •  & Nicolas Martin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transmembrane signaling is the core adaptation in nature that allows cells to communicate. Here, the authors engineer signaling through the lipid bilayer using chemical, synthetic receptors for their use in the design of artificial cells.

    • Ane Bretschneider Søgaard
    • , Andreas Bøtker Pedersen
    •  & Alexander N. Zelikin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polydopamine is a biomimetic self-adherent polymer, which can be easily deposited on a wide variety of materials but the polymerization mechanism and the key intermediate species formed during the deposition process are still controversial. Here, the authors report a systematic investigation of polydopamine formation on halloysite nanotubes.

    • Hamoon Hemmatpour
    • , Oreste De Luca
    •  & Petra Rudolf

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Animals precisely control the morphology and assembly of guanine crystals to produce diverse optical phenomena but little is known about how organisms regulate crystallization to produce optically useful morphologies. Here, the authors demonstrate that pre-assembled, fibrillar sheets in developing scallop eyes template nucleation and direct the growth and orientation of plate-like guanine crystals showing a striking resemblance to melanosome morphogenesis.

    • Avital Wagner
    • , Alexander Upcher
    •  & Benjamin A. Palmer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    ‘Manufacturing CAR-T cells is a streamlined and highly regulated procedure involving T-cell-expansion and activation on a standardised platform. Here, the authors show that a personalized approach, taking the phenotypic attributes of individual patients’ T cells into account, leads to more efficient CAR-T cell manufacturing and better CAR-T cell functionality.

    • David K. Y. Zhang
    • , Kwasi Adu-Berchie
    •  & David J. Mooney

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of biomolecular condensates have not been fully elucidated. Here the authors show that the LLPS propensity, dynamics, and encapsulation efficiency of designed peptide condensates can be tuned by subtle changes to the peptide composition.

    • Avigail Baruch Leshem
    • , Sian Sloan-Dennison
    •  & Ayala Lampel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural adhesives have received a lot of attention recently. Here, the authors develop a natural biological adhesive from snail mucus that can adhere to wet tissue and be used to accelerate healing of skin wounds.

    • Tuo Deng
    • , Dongxiu Gao
    •  & Mingyi Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nacre structure is used as inspiration in the design of impact resistant materials yet natural nacre is overcome by high impact speed attacks from predators. Here, the authors perform a range of testing and demonstrate superior energy dissipation of nacre-like structures at low impact velocities which is lost at higher impact velocities.

    • Xiao Zhang
    • , Kaijin Wu
    •  & Linghui He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of bioinspired dry adhesives mimicking closely the structure and surface adaptability of biological adhesives is challenging. Here, the authors propose an electrically responsive self-growing core–shell mushroom-shaped structure with a rigid core and a soft shell, which exhibits excellent adhesion on surfaces with roughness ranging from the nanoscale to the microscale.

    • Hongmiao Tian
    • , Duorui Wang
    •  & Jinyou Shao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Displaying the correct surface functionality at the right time is important for efficient drug delivery. Here, the authors report on the pH-responsive, sequential presentation of cell-penetrating peptide and liver-targeting moiety designed to improve intestinal absorption and liver targeting and demonstrate this with insulin delivery in vivo.

    • Tiantian Yang
    • , Aohua Wang
    •  & Yong Gan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Surface modification of nanoparticles by cell membrane (CM) coating to improve their bio-interface properties often results in partial coating. Here the authors show that partial coating is an intermediate state due to the absorption of CM fragments or vesicles and can be resolved by increasing CM fluidity with external phospholipids.

    • Lizhi Liu
    • , Dingyi Pan
    •  & Vesa-Pekka Lehto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The phase separation in the coacervates of adhesive muscle foot proteins is not fully understood. Here, the authors use simulations and point mutations of a mussel foot derived protein to show that hydrogen bonding is essential in the formation of coacervates in sea water which can help develop underwater adhesives.

    • Qi Guo
    • , Guijin Zou
    •  & Jing Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A challenge for synthetic biology is the design and construction of prototissue. Here, the authors spatially segregate layers of enzyme-decorated coacervate protocells as a model prototissue capable of chemical signal processing and modulating outputs of nitric oxide to inhibit blood clot formation.

    • Songyang Liu
    • , Yanwen Zhang
    •  & Jianbo Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Post-operative adhesions are a major complication from surgical intervention. Here, the authors develop a technique to grow a super-lubricating layer over electrospun nanofibers which was demonstrated to prevent postoperative adhesions with better outcomes than commercial products when compared in two in vivo models.

    • Yi Wang
    • , Yuanhang Xu
    •  & Hongyu Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Non‐compressible wounds are a major source of high mortality in trauma victims. Here the authors report on the creation of xerogels impregnated with liquid adhesives which can rapidly absorb fluids promoting blood clotting while forming adhesions to tissue and demonstrate the xerogel in ex vivo and in vivo models.

    • Guangyu Bao
    • , Qiman Gao
    •  & Jianyu Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacterial biofilm formation is a major risk of surgical implantation, and necessitates implant removal and aggressive antibiotic treatment. Here authors show that post-surgical application of Manganese-containing inorganic nanosheets reduces residual and recurrent infection by improving antigen presentation and humoral immune response against the biofilms.

    • Chuang Yang
    • , Yao Luo
    •  & Xianlong Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Difficulty with purification, structural heterogenicity, and limited water solubility of β-glucans has significantly limited their therapeutic applications. Here, the authors report the synthesis of (1→6)-β-glucose-branched poly-amido-saccharides as glycan-mimetics and demonstrate macrophage stimulation and polarization.

    • Ruiqing Xiao
    • , Jialiu Zeng
    •  & Mark W. Grinstaff

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