Progressive Macromolecular Self‐Assembly: From Biomimetic Chemistry to Bio‐Inspired Materials

Abstract

Macromolecular self-assembly (MSA) has been an active and fruitful research field since the 1980s, especially in this new century, which is promoted by the remarkable developments in controlled radical polymerization in polymer chemistry, etc. and driven by the demands in bio-related investigations and applications. In this review, we try to summarize the trends and recent progress in MSA in relation to biomimetic chemistry and bio-inspired materials. Our paper covers representative achievements in the fabrication of artificial building blocks for life, cell-inspired biomimetic materials, and macromolecular assemblies mimicking the functions of natural materials and their applications. It is true that the current status of the deliberately designed and obtained nano-objects based on MSA including a variety of micelles, multicompartment vesicles, and some hybrid and complex nano-objects is at their very first stage to mimic nature, but significant and encouraging progress has been made in achieving a certain similarity in morphologies or properties to that of natural ones. Such achievements also demonstrate that MSA has played an important and irreplaceable role in the grand and long-standing research of biomimetic and bio-inspired materials, the future success of which depends on mutual and persistent efforts in polymer science, material science, supramolecular chemistry, and biology.

Platinum covalent shell cross-linked micelles designed to deliver doxorubicin for synergistic combination cancer therapy

“…[13][14][15] To date, among the amounts of drug carriers, polymeric micelles have been widely employed in the development of multidrug co-delivery systems due to many advantages, such as core-shell nanostructures, excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability and versatile chemistry for further functionalization. 16,17 In addition, they are of nanoscopic size and stealthy property. Thus, polymeric micelles usually lead to a prolonged blood circulation and passive accumulation in solid tumor through the enhanced permeability and retention effect.…”

Structure and growth behavior of centimeter-sized helical oleate assemblies formed with assistance of medium-length carboxylic acids

“…[1][2][3] Research has focused on the spatiotemporal behavior of molecular assembly and, especially, the dynamics of these materials when utilized in life systems 4,5 and soft devices. 6,7 Various experimental and theoretical studies on assembly behavior have been reported and reviewed.…”

Protein crystalline frameworks with controllable interpenetration directed by dual supramolecular interactions

“…Efficient examples are the large ribosomal heterocomplex, myosin filaments, crystalline bacterial S layers 1 and membranes containing 2D arrays of bacteriorhodopsin or porins 2 . In selfassembly studies with protein building blocks, various nanostructures, including vesicles and cages, fibres and tubes, and lattice patches on surfaces, have been reported [3][4][5][6][7][8] . However, discrete multidimensional architectures, that is, protein crystalline frameworks (PCFs) with regular lattice structures, are still rare compared with the large number of proteins.…”