Bioinspired materials articles within Nature Materials

Featured

  • News & Views |

    A bioengineered model incorporating a synthetic extracellular matrix recapitulates the lymphoid tumour microenvironment, making it a valuable tool for drug testing and designing personalized therapies.

    • Akhilesh K. Gaharwar
    •  & Irtisha Singh

  • Research Briefing |

    Three-dimensional printing of hydrogels loaded with fungal mycelium can produce living materials with unique adaptive properties in shapes that are relevant for engineering applications. The metabolic activity of the living mycelial network allows the printed structure to grow autonomously and self-regenerate when it is provided with nutrients in water.

  • Review Article |

    This Review discusses recent progress in bioinspired nanocomposite design, emphasizing the role of hierarchical structuring at distinct length scales to create multifunctional, lightweight and robust structural materials for diverse technological applications.

    • Dhriti Nepal
    • , Saewon Kang
    •  & Hendrik Heinz

  • Letter |

    Reconstituted cytoskeleton networks linked with catch bonds display increased mechanical strength and crack resistance than those containing slip bonds, and simultaneously being more deformable, which allows for better adaptability to new mechanical environments.

    • Yuval Mulla
    • , Mario J. Avellaneda
    •  & Gijsje H. Koenderink

  • Editorial |

    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 |

    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

  • Article |

    The large-scale fabrication of cellulose nanocrystal photonic films in a roll-to-roll device is achieved by careful optimization of the cellulose nanocrystal formulation and its controlled deposition and drying on a substrate. Once dry, these photonic films can be peeled and milled into effect pigments, highlighting the potential of cellulose nanocrystals as a sustainable material for industrial photonic applications.

    • Benjamin E. Droguet
    • , Hsin-Ling Liang
    •  & Silvia Vignolini

  • Letter |

    A 3D bioprinting approach has been developed to facilitate tissue morphogenesis by directly depositing organoid-forming stem cells in an extracellular matrix, with the ability to generate intestinal epithelia and branched vascular tissue constructs.

    • Jonathan A. Brassard
    • , Mike Nikolaev
    •  & Matthias P. Lutolf

  • Article |

    Protein-based materials for soft robotics that self-heal within a second while maintaining the high strength of the damaged area are reported.

    • Abdon Pena-Francesch
    • , Huihun Jung
    •  & Metin Sitti

  • Letter |

    A cell culture interfacing an organic neuromorphic device in a microfluidic system reversibly modifies the device synaptic weight through chemical reactions mediated by the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter used in biological synapses.

    • Scott T. Keene
    • , Claudia Lubrano
    •  & Francesca Santoro

  • News & Views |

    Neural probes that mimic the subcellular structural features and mechanical properties of neurons assimilate across several structures of the brain to provide chronically stable neural recordings in a mouse model.

    • Jeffrey R. Capadona
    • , Andrew J. Shoffstall
    •  & Joseph J. Pancrazio

  • Article |

    Neural probes mimicking the size and mechanical properties of neurons interpenetrate the brain tissue, allowing stable single-unit recordings from implantation up to at least three months, and acting as scaffolds for the migration of new-born neurons.

    • Xiao Yang
    • , Tao Zhou
    •  & Charles M. Lieber

  • News & Views |

    An elastomer sheet with programmed inner channel architecture swiftly shapes into a desired three-dimensional geometry upon the application of pressure.

    • Efi Efrati

  • Letter |

    Elastomer sheets with programmable air channel organization swiftly shape into complex three-dimensional structures upon the application of pressure.

    • Emmanuel Siéfert
    • , Etienne Reyssat
    •  & Benoît Roman

  • Article |

    Ultrafast water transport in the surface of Sarracenia trichome is reported and demonstrated in synthetic bioinspired materials, where nano- and microchannels induce high-speed sliding of droplets on top of a thin water film.

    • Huawei Chen
    • , Tong Ran
    •  & Lei Jiang

  • News & Views |

    DNA origami nanostructures were utilized to replicate a seed pattern that resulted in the growth of populations of nanostructures. Exponential growth could be controlled by environmental conditions depending on the preferential requirements of each population.

    • Friedrich C. Simmel

  • Article |

    DNA origami allows the design of rod-shaped particles with specific geometrical features. This is exploited to examine how particle-level characteristics affect properties of the bulk phase and the superstructures such colloids assemble into.

    • Mahsa Siavashpouri
    • , Christian H. Wachauf
    •  & Zvonimir Dogic

  • Article |

    The penetration of tissues with syringe needles is a common clinical practice that inevitably results in blood loss at the puncture site. This blood loss can now be eliminated using self-sealing haemostatic needles.

    • Mikyung Shin
    • , Sung-Gurl Park
    •  & Haeshin Lee

  • Article |

    By means of a model of calcite single crystals containing high and tunable amounts of occluded amino acids, the hardness of the crystals can be quantitatively correlated with their composition.

    • Yi-Yeoun Kim
    • , Joseph D. Carloni
    •  & Fiona C. Meldrum

  • News & Views |

    A plant-inspired approach can be used to print hydrogels that dynamically change shape on immersion in water in order to yield prescribed complex structures.

    • Michael D. Dickey

  • Article |

    The energy landscapes of supramolecular systems are linked to their functions, as demonstrated by the switching of the balance of competing interactions in self-assembling amphiphiles.

    • Faifan Tantakitti
    • , Job Boekhoven
    •  & Samuel I. Stupp

  • News & Views |

    An additive manufacturing technique makes heterogeneous composites with tunable local microstructure and composition.

    • John W. C. Dunlop
    •  & Peter Fratzl

  • Article |

    A super-Förster energy-transfer regime, where coherent and incoherent energy transport processes enhance the diffusion of excitons, is observed at room temperature by tuning the distance between the chromophores’ binding sites in a virus scaffold.

    • Heechul Park
    • , Nimrod Heldman
    •  & Angela M. Belcher

  • Research Highlights |

    • Luigi Martiradonna

  • Letter |

    Experiments and coarse-grained simulations show, in an active system based on microtubules, a system-spanning phase of motile defects with orientational order that persists over hours despite a defect lifetime of seconds.

    • Stephen J. DeCamp
    • , Gabriel S. Redner
    •  & Zvonimir Dogic

  • Letter |

    Soft filamentous bundles, including F-actin, microtubules or bacterial flagella, can experience large frictional forces that scale logarithmically with sliding velocity, and such frictional coupling can be tuned by modifying lateral interfilament interactions.

    • Andrew Ward
    • , Feodor Hilitski
    •  & Zvonimir Dogic

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