Biomaterials articles within Nature Communications

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  • Review Article |

    There are many examples in nature of biological materials having developed interesting mechanical properties to enhance their functional performance. Here, Egan et al. review these materials and how they can inspire the design of biomimetic mechanical systems.

    • Paul Egan
    • , Robert Sinko
    •  & Sinan Keten

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Avoiding central cell necrosis at the centre of large engineered tissue constructs is an important issue forin vitrotissue engineering. Here, the authors demonstrate that this problem may be overcome by oxygenating human mesenchymal stem cells with artificial membrane-binding proteins.

    • James P. K. Armstrong
    • , Rameen Shakur
    •  & Anthony P. Hollander

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spider webs have some intriguing mechanical properties, but understanding of the properties is limited to individual silk fibres. Here, the authors create mimics of spider web using 3D techniques, which enables them to acquire knowledge of mechanical strength of the entire synthetic web.

    • Zhao Qin
    • , Brett G. Compton
    •  & Markus J. Buehler

  • Article |

    Hydrogels are commonly used materials for tissue engineering, but they can lack the structural properties required for load-bearing and mechanical applications. Here, the authors prepare a polycaprolactone scaffold using melt-electrospinning to reinforce a gelatin methacrylamide hydrogel.

    • Jetze Visser
    • , Ferry P.W. Melchels
    •  & Jos Malda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling self-assembly of nanoparticles into superlattices is an important approach to build functional materials. Here, Lu et al. use directional binding provided by DNA-encoded polyhedral blocks—cubes or octahedrons—to guide spherical nanoparticles into clusters and three-dimensional lattices.

    • Fang Lu
    • , Kevin G. Yager
    •  & Oleg Gang

  • Article |

    Electrospinning is a useful method of biomaterial fabrication, but a lack of bioactivity in the final construct can limit their application as mimics for biological matrices. Here, the authors fabricate a degradable electrospun scaffold as an in vitro and in vivomimic of the extracellular matrix.

    • Ryan J. Wade
    • , Ethan J. Bassin
    •  & Jason A. Burdick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some oligomers exhibit liquid-crystal-like ordering in concentrated aqueous solutions. Here, Fraccia et al. show that this kind of ordering can further facilitate DNA ligation in a way similar to a catalytic process that arises from a hierarchical self-assembly, namely liquid crystal autocatalysis.

    • Tommaso P. Fraccia
    • , Gregory P. Smith
    •  & Tommaso Bellini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photosynthetic reaction centres have been proposed for applications in bioelectronics. Here, the authors examine electron transport through the reaction centre from R. sphaeroidesusing conductive AFM, observing asymmetric conductance along only one cofactor wire under an applied bias.

    • Muhammad Kamran
    • , Vincent M. Friebe
    •  & Michael R. Jones

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mollusks have evolved an exquisite diversity of complex mineralized shells for protection. One such example, the blue-rayed limpet, incorporates a vivid display of blue lines, which originate from the interference of light in a nano-periodic photonic architecture buried within the animal's translucent shell.

    • Ling Li
    • , Stefan Kolle
    •  & Mathias Kolle

  • Article |

    Mouldable hydrogels find a variety of applications in the biomedical industry. Here, Appel et al. show a method to fabricate hydrogels through a self-assembly process based on the interaction between biopolymers and functional nanoparticles for multistage drug delivery in vivo.

    • Eric A. Appel
    • , Mark W. Tibbitt
    •  & Robert Langer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The degradation of materials used in biological applications has an important bearing on their long term performance. Here, the authors show how porous silicon nanoparticle degradation can be accelerated in vivothrough the influence of local tissue pathology, likely influencing drug delivery performance.

    • Adi Tzur-Balter
    • , Zohar Shatsberg
    •  & Natalie Artzi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Water is an important component of collagen in tendons, bone and extracellular matrix, but its role in the mechanical function of protein is poorly understood. Here, the authors study the effects of osmotic pressure on contraction in collagen, suggesting that collagen could function as a mechanical actuator.

    • Admir Masic
    • , Luca Bertinetti
    •  & Peter Fratzl

  • Article |

    Biocompatibility is a limiting factor in the use of electronic sensors in physiological applications. Here, the authors present a flexible and conductive polymer gel as an adhesive interface material for electronic biosensors, also demonstrating in vivoheart attachment and monitoring.

    • Sungwon Lee
    • , Yusuke Inoue
    •  & Takao Someya

  • Article |

    An integrated electronic platform with site-specific sensitivity is highly needed for medical applications. Here, Kim et al.report a stretchable prosthetic skin composed of ultrathin single crystalline silicon nanoribbon array, which can sense strain, pressure and temperature spontaneously.

    • Jaemin Kim
    • , Mincheol Lee
    •  & Dae-Hyeong Kim

  • Article |

    Biological systems, subject to evolutionary optimization over millions of years, have been a source of ingenious solutions in many areas of science. Here, Han et al. develop transparent electrodes inspired by two such systems: a leaf venation and a spider’s web.

    • Bing Han
    • , Yuanlin Huang
    •  & Jinwei Gao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Brain–machine interfaces offer the possibility of controlling prosthetic devices using changes in brain activity. Folcher et al.couple such a system wirelessly to an optogenetic implant in mice to control expression of a transgene, demonstrating its potential for mind-controlled drug delivery.

    • Marc Folcher
    • , Sabine Oesterle
    •  & Martin Fussenegger

  • Article |

    The death receptor CD95/Fas induces apoptosis of many normal cells but prevents necrotic death of cancer cells. Here the authors demonstrate that CD95 activation promotes a cancer stem cell (CSC) phenotype, and that CSCs but not differentiated cancer cells are resistant to CD95-mediated apoptosis and depend on CD95 signalling to prevent necrosis.

    • Paolo Ceppi
    • , Abbas Hadji
    •  & Marcus E. Peter

  • Article |

    Bio-inspired organic materials are a promising class of battery electrodes. Here, the authors present the use of the redox centre of pteridine derivatives, essential constituents in cellular energy metabolism, in lithium and sodium battery systems, and show some excellent electrochemical performance.

    • Jihyun Hong
    • , Minah Lee
    •  & Kisuk Kang

  • Article |

    The conversion between water and oxygen is an important process in electrochemical devices, but is hindered by the large activation energy. Here, the authors report a copper-based catalyst capable of catalyzing both oxygen reduction and evolution, and identify the hydroxyl radical as the common intermediate.

    • Jiong Wang
    • , Kang Wang
    •  & Xing-Hua Xia

  • Article |

    Polymer brush surface coatings are important biomaterials for the reduction of biomolecule and cell adhesion. Here, the authors use a recombinantly expressed, intrinsically disordered protein to form a stimuli-responsive and enzyme-active polymer brush surface.

    • Nithya Srinivasan
    • , Maniraj Bhagawati
    •  & Sanjay Kumar

  • Article |

    Bacterial cells use a self-generated extracellular matrix of various biomolecules in order to form biofilms and promote their stability. Here, the authors present a method for genetically controlling the composition of this extracellular matrix to yield more functional biofilms.

    • Peter Q. Nguyen
    • , Zsofia Botyanszki
    •  & Neel S. Joshi

  • Article |

    Biological systems are capable of building diverse structures starting from a limited number of chemical building blocks. Here, the authors show that polymers terminated with oligopeptides display assembly behaviour dependent on peptide length, and blends allow tailoring of a variety of material properties.

    • Emmanuel Croisier
    • , Su Liang
    •  & Holger Frauenrath

  • Article |

    Bioreactors need to separate the internal environment from the bulk, while also allowing entry and exit of substrate and product. Here, the authors make highly uniform, semipermeable droplets using an aqueous two-phase system, and show potential as microreactors based on a ribozyme cleavage reaction.

    • Daniel C. Dewey
    • , Christopher A. Strulson
    •  & Christine D. Keating

  • Article |

    Gold nanoparticles coated with amphiphilic ligands can spontaneously insert into lipid bilayers, reducing hydrophobic interactions. Here, the authors show the key step in this process is similar to vesicle fusion: lipid tails from the bilayer protrude into water before encountering the nanoparticle.

    • Reid C. Van Lehn
    • , Maria Ricci
    •  & Alfredo Alexander-Katz

  • Article |

    Growing polymer chains are often confined within vesicles in biological systems. Here, the authors study how material properties such as friction, flexibility and thickness affect confined polymer filaments when they grow beyond their equilibrium size, identifying four unique morphologies.

    • R. Vetter
    • , F. K. Wittel
    •  & H. J. Herrmann

  • Article |

    Biofuel cells can be used as power sources for implantable biomedical devices, but suffer from limited power and lifetime. Here, Kwon et al.fabricate biscrolled carbon nanotube yarn electrodes, and demonstrate high fuel cell performances when used for glucose energy harvesting.

    • Cheong Hoon Kwon
    • , Sung-Ho Lee
    •  & Seon Jeong Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanofibrils isolated from wood have potential as building blocks for materials, but in order to obtain high performance, control of the assembly process is needed. Here, the authors report a method to process nanofibrils using microfluidics, giving filaments with aligned fibrils and high strength.

    • Karl M. O. Håkansson
    • , Andreas B. Fall
    •  & L. Daniel Söderberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fangs are segments of the spider mouthparts, which are used to inject venom into prey and are required to sustain large mechanical loads. Here, the authors perform experiment-driven simulations, so to understand the correlation between the multiscale structural gradients and the biomechanical function of the fang.

    • Benny Bar-On
    • , Friedrich G. Barth
    •  & Yael Politi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanoparticles capable of selectively binding target chemicals have potential for detoxification processes, but can lead to accumulation in the liver. Here the authors show a 3D-printed device containing functional nanoparticles, allowing the detox potential to be realised while holding the particles in place.

    • Maling Gou
    • , Xin Qu
    •  & Shaochen Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Patients with oesophageal diseases may require surgical removal and replacement of the oesophagus. Here the authors seed mesenchymal stromal cells on a decellularized rat oesophagus and show that this bioengineered tissue construct restores swallowing function after transplantation into rats.

    • Sebastian Sjöqvist
    • , Philipp Jungebluth
    •  & Paolo Macchiarini

  • Article |

    Current bone fracture repair options include metallic and resorbable systems, both of which suffer from various issues and limitations. Here, the authors demonstrate resorbable and biocompatible silk bone screws, via in vivotesting.

    • Gabriel S. Perrone
    • , Gary G. Leisk
    •  & David L. Kaplan

  • Article |

    Tools for cardiac physiological mapping are important for basic and clinical cardiac research. Here the authors use 3D printing to create a thin, elastic silicone sheath that fits tightly around the entire epicardium and contains sensors to measure a variety of physiological parameters of the beating heart ex vivo.

    • Lizhi Xu
    • , Sarah R. Gutbrod
    •  & John A. Rogers

  • Article |

    Artificial muscles composed of carbon nanotube yarns have previously demonstrated fast, large-angle rotations. Here, the authors infiltrate carbon nanotube yarns with a paraffin wax and polystyrene-based copolymer mixture, achieving stable 9,800 r.p.m. rotation without apparent oscillation.

    • Kyoung-Yong Chun
    • , Shi Hyeong Kim
    •  & Seon Jeong Kim

  • Article |

    Brain–machine interfaces are being investigated for recovery of motor function after paralysis. Shanechi et al.present a neural prosthesis that decodes premotor neuronal activity in an alert monkey to activate spinal neurons and muscles that produce target-directed movements in a sedated monkey or avatar.

    • Maryam M. Shanechi
    • , Rollin C. Hu
    •  & Ziv M. Williams

  • Article |

    Self-assembly is a promising route for creating new functional biomaterials. Here, the authors find that subtle modifications to intermolecular interactions within supramolecular nanofibres can cause the disruption of lipid membranes and impart cytotoxicity or allow cells to survive.

    • Christina J. Newcomb
    • , Shantanu Sur
    •  & Samuel I. Stupp

  • Article |

    The raptorial appendages of stomatopods are known to inflict large impact forces at high speeds, while exhibiting large damage tolerance. Here, the authors study the structure, distribution and nanomechanical properties of mineral phases in stomatopod's clubs, finding that calcium sulphate is co-localized with crystalline fluorapatite.

    • Shahrouz Amini
    • , Admir Masic
    •  & Ali Miserez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The crystallization of amorphous calcium carbonate is a widely studied process. Here, the authors probe the mechanism and show that transformation to calcite is preceded by dehydration, even in solution, and that loss of the final water fraction triggers crystallization.

    • Johannes Ihli
    • , Wai Ching Wong
    •  & Fiona C. Meldrum

  • Article |

    Glass is well known to be a brittle material, with fracture occurring soon after crack nucleation. Here, inspired by natural architectures, the authors report the laser patterning of features within an oxide glass, leading to a two order of magnitude improvement in fracture toughness.

    • M. Mirkhalaf
    • , A. Khayer Dastjerdi
    •  & F. Barthelat

  • Article |

    Protein-based hydrogels are of great interest for many biomedical applications. Here, the authors demonstrate the use of mechanical labile proteins to initiate large-scale forced unfolding in order to engineer the mechanical properties of protein-based biomaterials.

    • Jie Fang
    • , Alexander Mehlich
    •  & Hongbin Li

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