Biomaterials articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Conventional adhesives stick poorly to wet tissue because water severely undermines the adhesive chemicals they rely on. To overcome this, Yang et al. develop a bio-inspired adhesive microneedle array whose tips swell on contact with water, forming a mechanical bond to living tissue.

    • Seung Yun Yang
    • , Eoin D. O'Cearbhaill
    •  & Jeffrey M. Karp

  • Article |

    Many living organisms use materials that are capable of changing their shape in response to changes in the environment. Erb et al. demonstrate an approach to synthesizing artificial shape-changing composites that replicate such behaviour.

    • Randall M. Erb
    • , Jonathan S. Sander
    •  & André R. Studart

  • Article |

    Primary sensory areas of newborn mammals typically display input-dependent plasticity. Thomson and colleagues use a sensory prosthetic device in rats to show that adult rats can discriminate different infrared light signals, when the signals are routed to somatosensory cortex by electrical microstimulation.

    • Eric E. Thomson
    • , Rafael Carra
    •  & Miguel A.L. Nicolelis

  • Article |

    Blood clotting is caused by biopolymer-mediated aggregation of platelets and is enhanced by fast shear flows. Chen et al. find a similar process that arises during the self-assembly of polymer–colloid composites—a process that can be controlled and even reversed by flow rate and interparticle interaction.

    • Hsieh Chen
    • , Mohammad A. Fallah
    •  & Alfredo Alexander-Katz

  • Article |

    Microparticles are small vesicular structures that are shed from cellular plasma membranes. Tang and colleagues show that cells treated with chemotherapeutic drugs produce drug-containing microparticles, which can be used as anticancer agents in mice.

    • Ke Tang
    • , Yi Zhang
    •  & Bo Huang

  • Article |

    Photosynthesis occurs at the thylakoid membrane, which acts as a scaffold, precisely arranging functional proteins and electron carriers. Sunet al.synthesize hollow photosynthetic nanospheres that function as light-harvesting antennae and structured scaffolds that improve photoredox catalysis.

    • Jianhua Sun
    • , Jinshui Zhang
    •  & Xinchen Wang

  • Article |

    Nacre is an organic–inorganic composite biomaterial, which consists of an ordered multilayer structure of crystalline calcium carbonate platelets separated by porous organic layers. Finnemoreet al. present a route to artificial nacre which mimics the natural layer-by-layer biosynthesis.

    • Alexander Finnemore
    • , Pedro Cunha
    •  & Ullrich Steiner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The compositional makeup of skeletons and teeth in invertebrates and vertebrates is generally different. This study examines the material composition and properties of freshwater crayfish mandibles and finds, in an unusual case of convergent evolution, that they are composed of an apatite layer that is similar to mammalian enamel.

    • Shmuel Bentov
    • , Paul Zaslansky
    •  & Barbara Aichmayer

  • Article |

    Graphene is characterized by unique physical properties that offer substantial promise, most notably for electronic applications. Mannooret al. present a wireless graphene-based sensor for detecting bacteria on a range of biological tissues.

    • Manu S. Mannoor
    • , Hu Tao
    •  & Michael C. McAlpine

  • Article |

    The photosynthetic reaction centres, photosystems I and II, have been investigated for the light-induced generation of fuels and electrical power. Now, Yehezkeliet al. report a photobiofuel cell that generates electricity upon irradiation of photosystem II-functionalized electrodes in aqueous solutions.

    • Omer Yehezkeli
    • , Ran Tel-Vered
    •  & Itamar Willner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biological materials efficiently exploit self-assembly of simple constituents to produce complex functional structures such as optical devices. By controlling organic molecules, Leeet al. show fast two-step self-assembly of CaCO3microlens arrays, reminiscent of their biological counterparts.

    • Kyubock Lee
    • , Wolfgang Wagermaier
    •  & Peter Fratzl

  • Article |

    Interfacing neurons with artificial functional materials could aid the development of neurological prosthetic devices. Here, primary neurons are incorporated into a polymer layer without adversely affecting their properties; the advance may contribute to the development of artificial retinas.

    • Diego Ghezzi
    • , Maria Rosa Antognazza
    •  & Guglielmo Lanzani

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