Grand Challenges in Biomaterials

The biomaterials field constitutes a transdisciplinary activity in which synthetic or naturally derived materials are utilized for a variety of desired outcomes in living systems. Biomaterials may act as physical supports at times, providing a space in which biological systems manifest their inherent characteristics. More commonly, biomaterials actively participate in the performance of a biological system, supporting or even inducing desirable traits that would have not been possible without the biomaterial. While biomaterials have become an integral part of several industrial processes and products, it is their medical use in the body that fascinated and stimulated our imagination. From simple entrapment of enzymes (Chang, 1964), we witnessed the creation of “bioartificial” organs combining cells and materials (Chick et al., 1977), followed by enzyme-sensitive biomaterials by design (Ulbrich et al., 1980), and engineered materials that matched the physical (Urry et al., 1981) and cellular requirements (Massia and Hubbell, 1991) of injured tissues. We learned to utilize biomaterials to control the release of small molecules such as drugs (Schwartz et al., 1968; Goodman and Banker, 1970) and especially macromolecules such as proteins (Langer and Folkman, 1976), which stimulated us to explore unique therapies. The potential of biomaterials is manifested in diverse areas and every organ in our bodies have benefited from them in one form or another. To fulfill such a broad translational promise, one needs to rely on sound scientific and engineering practice and should be exceptionally vigilant in fabricating and assessing the constructed systems. Identifying a few unifying (fundamental) principles for developing functional biomaterials is difficult when the biomaterials are intended for so many different uses, whether to stimulate our body’s surveillance system to fight malignant cells or infections, to restore the physical barrier in skin upon losing its integrity, or to act as a blood conduit in tiny channels. I believe that the challenges facing functional biomaterials need to be addressed in the context of intended applications. However, I would like to propose that one should be mindful of two broad challenges irrespective of the specific utility of the biomaterials: