This Review is focused on the growing interest brought to phosphorus-containing organic materials for applications in the biomedical field, mainly because of their properties such as biocompatibility, hemocompatibility, and protein adsorption resistance. It mainly describes relevant works achieved on these materials for various applications: dentistry, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery. Special attention was given to 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) monomer as the latter appeared of great importance because of its biomimetic structure due to the presence of the phospholipid group on its structure. As a result, much research effort is currently concentrated on the development of phosphorylcholine-containing (co)polymers that represent a promising class of materials.

When dispersed in biological fluids, engineered nanoparticles are selectively coated with proteins, resulting in the formation of a protein corona. It is suggested that the protein corona is critical in regulating the conditions of entry into the cytoplasm of living cells. Recent reports describe this phenomenon as ubiquitous and independent of the nature of the particle. For nanomedicine applications, however, there is a need to design advanced and cost-effective coatings that are resistant to protein adsorption and that increase the biodistribution in vivo. In this study, phosphonic acid poly(ethylene glycol) copolymers were synthesized and used to coat iron oxide particles. The copolymer composition was optimized to provide simple and scalable protocols as well as long-term stability in culture media. It is shown that polymers with multiple phosphonic acid functionalities and PEG chains outperform other types of coating, including ligands, polyelectrolytes, and carboxylic acid functionalized PEG. PEGylated particles exhibit moreover exceptional low cellular uptake, of the order of 100 femtograms of iron per cell. The present approach demonstrates that the surface chemistry of engineered particles is a key parameter in the interactions with cells. It also opens up new avenues for the efficient functionalization of inorganic surfaces.