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Natural biopolymers have a rich history, with many uses across the fields of healthcare and medicine, including formulations for wound dressings, surgical implants, tissue culture substrates, and drug delivery vehicles. Yet, synthetic-based materials have been more successful in translation due to precise control and regulation achievable during manufacturing. However, there is a renewed interest in natural biopolymers, which offer a diverse landscape of architecture, sustainable sourcing, functional groups, and properties that synthetic counterparts cannot fully replicate as processing and sourcing of these materials has improved. Proteins and polysaccharides derived from various sources (crustaceans, plants, insects, etc.) are highlighted in this review. We discuss the common types of polysaccharide and protein biopolymers used in healthcare and medicine, highlighting methods and strategies to alter structures and intra- and interchain interactions to engineer specific functions, products, or materials. We focus on biopolymers obtained from natural, nonmammalian sources, including silk fibroins, alginates, chitosans, chitins, mucins, keratins, and resilins, while discussing strategies to improve upon their innate properties and sourcing standardization to expand their clinical uses and relevance. Emphasis will be placed on methods that preserve the structural integrity and native biological functions of the biopolymers and their makers. We will conclude by discussing the untapped potential of new technologies to manipulate native biopolymers while controlling their secondary and tertiary structures, offering a perspective on advancing biopolymer utility in novel applications within biomedical engineering, advanced manufacturing, and tissue engineering.
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Progress in Bioinspired Dry and Wet Gradient Materials from Design Principles to Engineering Applications
Nature does nothing in vain. Through millions of years of revolution, living organisms have evolved hierarchical and anisotropic structures to maximize their survival in complex and dynamic environments. Many of these structures are intrinsically heterogeneous and often with functional gradient distributions. Understanding the convergent and divergent gradient designs in the natural material systems may lead to a new paradigm shift in the development of next-generation high-performance bio-/nano-materials and devices that are critically needed in energy, environmental remediation, and biomedical fields. Herein, we review the basic design principles and highlight some of the prominent examples of gradient biological materials/structures discovered over the past few decades. Interestingly, despite the anisotropic features in one direction (i.e., in terms of gradient compositions and properties), these natural structures retain certain levels of symmetry, including point symmetry, axial symmetry, mirror symmetry, and 3D symmetry. We further demonstrate the state-of-the-art fabrication techniques and procedures in making the biomimetic counterparts. Some prototypes showcase optimized properties surpassing those seen in the biological model systems. Finally, we summarize the latest applications of these synthetic functional gradient materials and structures in robotics, biomedical, energy, and environmental fields, along with their future perspectives. This review may stimulate scientists, engineers, and inventors to explore this emerging and disruptive research methodology and endeavors.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2004251
- PAR ID:
- 10227637
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- iScience
- Volume:
- 23
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 2589-0042
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 101749
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101749
