Published in Advanced functional materials
Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) are nucleic acid analogs with superior hybridization properties and enzymatic stability than deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In addition to gene targeting applications, PNAs have garnered significant attention as bio-polymer due to the Watson-Crick -based molecular recognition and flexibility of synthesis. Here, we enginee...
Published in Advanced functional materials
Biomaterials that replicate patterns of microenvironmental signals from the stem cell niche offer the potential to refine platforms to regulate stem cell behavior. While significant emphasis has been placed on understanding the effects of biophysical and biochemical cues on stem cell fate, vascular-derived or angiocrine cues offer an important alte...
Published in Advanced functional materials
Mimicking growth factor-ECM interactions for promoting cell migration is a powerful technique to improve tissue integration with biomaterial scaffolds for the regeneration of damaged tissues. This has been attempted by scaffold-mediated controlled delivery of exogenous growth factors; however, the predetermined nature of this delivery can limit the...
Published in Advanced functional materials
Developing and healing tissues begin as a cellular condensation. Spatiotemporal changes in tissue geometry, transformations in the spatial distribution of the cells and extracellular matrix, are essential for its evolution into a functional tissue. 4D materials, 3D materials capable of geometric changes, may have the potential to recreate the afore...
Published in Advanced functional materials
Nucleotide-based drugs, such as antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), have unique advantages in treating human diseases as they provide virtually unlimited ability to target any gene. However, their clinical translation faces many challenges, one of which is poor delivery to the target tissue in vivo. This problem is particularly evident in solid tumo...
Published in Advanced functional materials
Like ready-to-wear clothing, medical devices come in a fixed set of sizes. While this may accommodate a large fraction of the patient population, others must either experience suboptimal results due to poor sizing or must do without the device. Although techniques have been proposed to fabricate patient-specific devices in advance of a procedure, t...
Published in Advanced functional materials
Living systems have not only the exemplary capability to fabricate materials (e.g. wood, bone) under ambient conditions but they also consist of living cells that imbue them with properties like growth and self-regeneration. Like a seed that can grow into a sturdy living wood, we wondered: can living cells alone serve as the primary building block ...
Published in Advanced functional materials
Electrically conductive 3D periodic microscaffolds are fabricated using a particle-free direct ink writing approach for use as neuronal growth and electrophysiological recording platforms. A poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA)/pyrrole ink, followed by chemical in situ polymerization of pyrrole, enables hydrogel printing through nozzles as sm...
Published in Advanced functional materials
Unlike nearly all engineered materials which contain bonds that weaken under load, biological materials contain "catch" bonds which are reinforced under load. Consequently, materials, such as the cell cytoskeleton, can adapt their mechanical properties in response to their state of internal, non-equilibrium (active) stress. However, how large-scale...
Published in Advanced functional materials
The authors designed a structurally stable nano-in-nano (NANO2) system highly capable of bioimaging via an aggregation-enhanced NIR excited emission and photoacoustic response achieved based on atomically precise gold nanoclusters protected by linear thiolated ligands [Au25(SC n H2n+1)18, n = 4-16] encapsulated in discoidal phospholipid bicelles th...
