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Self-assembly of bioinspired and biologically functional materials

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Abstract

Self-assembly enables hierarchical organization and compartmentalization of matter previously observed only in natural materials. Simple chemical motifs can be used to fabricate structures with diverse range of architectures and properties. The design principles, originally found in nature, are being implemented in self-assembled materials. The examples include high mechanical strength of bones and nacre achieved through hierarchical organic–inorganic organization, and DNA nanotechnology enabled by complementary bonding of DNA molecules. Building materials with controlled architectures from the nanoscale to the macroscale will lead to a combination of properties that will have significant impacts on fields ranging from tissue regeneration to optoelectronics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lehigh University, USA

    E. Thomas Pashuck

  2. New York University, USA

    Ned Seeman

  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

    Robert Macfarlane

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  1. E. Thomas Pashuck
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  2. Ned Seeman
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Correspondence to E. Thomas Pashuck.

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E. Thomas Pashuck is an assistant professor in bioengineering at Lehigh University. He received his PhD degree in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University. He completed postdoctoral research as a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellow at Imperial College London, UK. His research includes designing new biomaterials for regenerative medicine. His research focuses on developing cell-responsive hydrogels and noncovalently cross-linked polymers with tunable viscoelastic properties. Pashuck can be reached by email at etp218@lehigh.edu.

Ned Seeman is a Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor of Chemistry at New York University. He receievd his BS degree in biochemistry from the University of Chicago, and his PhD degree in biological crystallography from the University of Pittsburgh in 1970. He completed postdoctoral research at Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on nucleic acid crystallography. Seeman is most noted for his development of the concept of DNA nanotechnology. His awards include the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology in 1995, and The Kavli Prize in Nanoscience. He is a Fellow of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Seeman can be reached by email at ned.seeman@nyu.edu.

Robert Macfarlane is the Paul M. Cook Associate Professor of Materials Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He obtained his PhD degree in chemistry from Northwestern University in 2013. He was a Kavli Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. His research focuses on developing new assembly methods to manipulate material structure across multiple length scales simultaneously, using a combination of different building blocks, including inorganic nanoparticles, DNA, synthetic polymers, and supramolecular chemistry. Macfarlane can be reached by email at rmacfarl@mit.edu.

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Pashuck, E.T., Seeman, N. & Macfarlane, R. Self-assembly of bioinspired and biologically functional materials. MRS Bulletin 45, 832–840 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs.2020.249

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