Themed collection Journal of Materials Chemistry B Emerging Investigators

Journal of Materials Chemistry B profiles contributors to the Emerging Investigators 2020 issue.

Representative strategies for designing smart drug delivery systems by using functional peptides in the past few years are highlighted in this review.

Soft implant surfaces should be designed with an eye toward natural, healthy biointerfaces, which use high water content aqueous gel gradients to reduce contact pressures and frictional shear stresses and thus reduce inflammation and discomfort.

Triggering specific chemical reactions in the disease microenvironment can produce species for disease treatment that have high theranostic performance and low side effects on healthy cells/tissues.

The strategies and obstacles for overcoming the barriers in the tumor microenvironment are presented.

Liquid-phase electron microscopy, a new method for real-time nanoscopic imaging in liquid, makes it possible to study cells or biomolecules with a singular combination of spatial and temporal resolution. We review the state of the art in biological research in this growing and promising field.

This review introduces trigonal building blocks and summarizes their structural characteristics, self-assembly ability and biomedical applications.

Biomedical use cases for self-immolative polymers.

Integrating ECM materials in microfluidics for 3D cell culture.

Development of neural interfaces from surface electrodes to fibers with various type, functionality, and materials.

Vapor-deposited polymer thin films empower the next-generation biological applications including bio-separations, biosensors & bio-MEMS, drug delivery and tissue engineering.

Establishing the “Materials 4.0” paradigm requires intimate knowledge of the virtual space in materials design.

Selecting the appropriate nanoparticle, functionalization chemistry and sensing methodology can speed up the translation of liquid biopsies into the clinic.

Engineering strategies of nanoparticles were elaborated to overcome delivery barriers from the perspectives of trans-vascular transport and interstitial transport.

This review article discusses the recent progress in designing, synthesizing and programming liquid crystal elastomers with different dynamic covalent bonds.

Herein, recent advances in the synthesis of the water-soluble polypeptides with ordered secondary structures via ring-opening polymerization of NCA/NTA and their biological applications are described.

This review discusses the design parameters that are important to consider when developing nanomaterials for applications in maternal/fetal health.

A derivatization strategy was demonstrated for reliable identification of individual amino acids using an α-hemolysin nanopore.

Deterministic assembly of metallic nanoparticles (e.g. gold nanoparticles) into prescribed configurations has promising applications in many fields such as biosensing and drug delivery.

Customizing the spatial distribution of aptamers on DNA origami nanoboxes can regulate the internalization and proliferation of cancer cells.

A gallol-functionalized polymer showed strong adhesion ability underwater. The effect of molecular weight and gallol content have been optimized resulting in the underwater adhesion strength as high as 4 MPa.

In this work, we evaluate the enhancing effect of six bilayers of heparin/collagen (HEP/COL)₆ layer-by-layer coatings on human Schwann cell (hSCs) adhesion and proliferation in the presence or absence of nerve growth factor (NGF).

A combination of mid-infrared plasmons and time-resolved fluorescence are used to probe biomolecules at a buried electrochemically active interface.

We reported a series of POSS-based antioxidant shape amphiphiles for preventing cell oxidative damage and promoting wound healing.

Approaches to control the microstructure of hydrogels enable the control of cell–material interactions and the design of stimuli-responsive materials.

Photo-degradable triblock copolymers enable the co-delivery of nitric oxide and doxorubicin exerting an improved therapeutic effect.

A conjugate of an anti-HER2 antibody and polyrotaxane containing methylated β-cyclodextrins (Me-PRX) was designed to achieve a tumor-specific delivery of Me-PRX. The antibody–Me-PRX conjugates efficiently uptaken into HER2-positive cells and induced autophagic cell death.

We investigated a porous nanosheet to induce the formation of spheroids consisting of adipose-tissue derived stem cells, which is useful not only for engineering 3D cellular organization, but also for imaging the detailed structure of the spheroid.

Y₁ receptor ligand-modified nanobubbles could target breast cancer cells and improve therapeutic efficacy with reduced side effects under ultrasound irradiation during chemotherapy.

Time-resolved fluorescence have used to explore the inner surface and solvation dynamics within protein hydrogels assisting in rationalizing their drug binding and release capabilities.

¹⁴N–¹H HMQC experiments are powerful experiments to characterize amorphous drug–polymer formulations of paclitaxel yielding well-separated signals in the ¹⁴N dimension as well as information on the symmetry of ¹⁴N and ¹⁴N–¹H interactions.

A zwitterionic MRI contrast agent Gd-PAA with exceptionally high r₁ was designed for hepatorenal angiography and tumor imaging.

Peptide conjugation modulates the stability and biological acitivty of proteins via the allosteric effect.

Gap-enhanced resonance Raman tags enable long-term, high-resolution and high-speed (1 ms per pixel) live-cell imaging with a laser power of 50 μW.

Helical peptoid crosslinkers confer tunable mechanical properties and enzymatic stability to hydrogels for cell culture.

Calcium alendronate-coated composite scaffolds not only displayed excellent cytocompatibility and cell adhesion but also promoted osteogenic differentiation of ADSCs.

Phosphate-responsive peroxidase-mimicking two-dimensional-metal–organic-framework nanozymes were employed to develop alkaline phosphatase assays with tunable dynamic ranges and colorimetric logic gates.

Morphology tunable and acid-sensitive dextran–doxorubicin conjugate assemblies (DD-M and DDF-V) were developed for targeted cancer therapy.

Hydrolytically stable, phototunable hybrid-hydrogels containing clickable decellularized extracellular matrix enable spatiotemporal control over fibroblast activation.

2D PEGylated graphene oxide showed stealth-but-immune-activating capacity on macrophages, along with specific intraperitoneal immunological response in vivo.

We have reported a facile strategy to tune the photoconversion of organic dye aggregates for achieving potent photo-induced cancer therapy.

Theranostic nanoparticles composed of amphiphilic paramagnetic polymers are assembled for dual mode imaging and synergistic therapy.

Biomimetic materials are attracting increasing attention in the field of drug delivery due to their low immunogenicity, good biocompatibility and degradability.

A tumor-targeting nanoreactor was developed to perform TME-triggered chain catalytic reactions and achieved satisfactory and accurate tumor therapy.