Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

ENGINEERED LIVING MATERIALS

Self-healing through adhesion

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature Chemical Biology

View current issue Submit your manuscript

The design of biological materials with tunable properties is an emerging challenge for the twenty-first century. A new approach to direct engineered cells to stick together improves biomaterial performance and simplifies self-healing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1: Cell–cell adhesion tools for materials.

References

  1. Nguyen, P. Q., Courchesne, N.-M. D., Duraj-Thatte, A., Praveschotinunt, P. & Joshi, N. S. Adv. Mater. 30, 1704847 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Gilbert, C. et al. Living materials with programmable functionalities grown from engineered microbial co-cultures. Nat. Mater. 20, 691–700 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Rivera-Tarazona, L. K., Campbell, Z. T. & Ware, T. H. Soft Matter 17, 785–809 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Srubar, W. V. Trends Biotechnol. 39, 574–583 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Chen, B. & Dai, Z. Nat. Chem. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00934-z (2021).

  6. Caro-Astorga, J., Walker, K. T., Herrera, N., Lee, K.-Y. & Ellis, T. Nat. Commun. 12, 5027 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Schaffner, M., Rühs, P. A., Coulter, F., Kilcher, S. & Studart, A. R. Sci. Adv. 3, eaao6804 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Glass, D. S. & Riedel-Kruse, I. H. Cell 174, 649–658.e16 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Joaquin Caro-Astorga & Tom Ellis

Authors
  1. Joaquin Caro-Astorga
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tom Ellis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tom Ellis.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Caro-Astorga, J., Ellis, T. Self-healing through adhesion. Nat Chem Biol 18, 239–240 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00946-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00946-9

  • Springer Nature America, Inc.

Search

Navigation