Biointerfaces and Biopolymers

Advanced Materials Interfaces, vol. 9

Abstract

We are pleased to present this joint special issue of Macromolecular Bioscience and Advanced Materials Interfaces titled “Biointerfaces and Biopolymers”. In the last decades there has been an explosion in material science with revolutionary concepts that merge the state-of-the-art in chemistry, physics, and biology, with nanoscience and technology. Concurrently, basic research in biological materials has started to shed light in nature's design rules, which allows unprecedented functionality by the self-assembly of molecules across several levels of hierarchy, scales and time domains. These advances are synergistically being translated to a number of biomaterials, implants, medical devices, biosensors or drug carriers which are having a huge impact in society. A contemporary example of this, are vaccines consisting of RNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles that protect us against SARS-CoV-2. Arguably, the success of these technologies demands a seamless integration by programming and controlling what happens at the interface between the non-biological material and the biological environment. Following the scientific advances of especially the last two decades, the current trend is to deliver increasingly cleverly designed complexity at the molecular and supramolecular level and to steer lifeless matter towards tuned and often optimized interactions with biological materials. A cornerstone for this goal – and we expect this to be a further trend in the decade to come – is to display a high degree of selectivity, which means to be invisible to unwanted interactions while allowing or preferably even enhancing the specific ones. This issue encompasses work on antifouling, antimicrobial coatings, efforts to understand the way they interact with biological media, including nucleic acid, proteins, bacteria, marine organisms and blood as well as applications such as biolubrication, adhesion, biosensing, tissue engineering, drug and gene delivery. The breadth of the research is immediately clear by the number of different material classes studied, including polymer nanocoatings, sharklet-inspired microstructures, inorganic materials, cell membrane mimics as well as by the applications addressed. The articles summarize some of the most important and urgent challenges of the field and also pose some central questions which should be pursued. We thank all who contributed their articles for this issue as well as the Macromolecular Bioscience and Advanced Materials Interfaces' editorial offices, and hope and trust this issue will spark new ideas and contribute to further advances in the field.

Authors 2

1. César Rodriguez‐Emmenegger corresponding Aachen

   DWI – Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials · Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats · Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology · Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia

   Affiliation as printed

   DWI ‐ Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials Forckenbeckstraße 50 D‐52074 Aachen Germany

   Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) Passeig Lluís Companys 23 Barcelona 08010 Spain

   Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) Carrer de Baldiri Reixac, 10, 12 Barcelona 08028 Spain

   Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Carrer de Baldiri Reixac, 10, 12, Barcelona, 08028 Spain

2. Han T. Zuilhof corresponding

   Wageningen University & Research · Tianjin University · King Abdulaziz University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty of Engineering King Abdulaziz University Jeddah 21589 Saudi Arabia

   Laboratory of Organic Chemistry Wageningen University Stippeneng 4 Wageningen 6708 WE The Netherlands

   School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology Tianjin University 92 Weijin Road Tianjin 300072 P. R. China

   Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589 Saudi Arabia

   Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Wageningen University, Stippeneng 4, Wageningen, 6708 WE The Netherlands

   School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Tianjin, 300072 P. R. China