Living systems have evolved to grow and heal through self-assembling processes capable of organizing molecular and cellular building-blocks at multiple size scales. These “biological organization principles” (BOPs) emerge from cooperative interactions and chemical networks between multiple components, which allow biological systems to diversify, respond, and ultimately optimize.1 There is great interest to develop materials and devices that can emulate the structural and functional properties of such systems. Towards this goal, it is critical to develop new fabrication methodologies which enable the assembly of multiple types of building-blocks into functional ensembles integrated hierarchically. This talk will present recent work form our laboratory focused on integrating supramolecular events found in nature with engineering and biofabrication principles. The first part of the talk will describe approaches harnessing protein order-disorder synergies to regulate organic-inorganic interactions and engineer mineralizing materials for regeneration of hard tissues such as dental enamel and bone.2 The second part will describe methodologies exploiting self-assembly and diffusion-reaction processes to organize multiple types of biomolecules hierarchically for the fabrication of regenerative implants as well as in vitro models of cancer3 or vascular tissue.4

Harnessing biological organization principles for tissue engineering and the fabrication of in vitro models

ACS Spring 2022

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