Biological polymers such as nucleic acids and proteins are ubiquitous in living systems, but their ability to address problems beyond those found in nature is constrained by factors such as chemical or biological instability, limited building-block functionality, bioavailability, and immunogenicity. In principle, sequence-defined synthetic polymers based on nonbiological monomers and backbones ...

Nanoscale objects of increasing complexity can be constructed from DNA or RNA. However, the scope of potential applications could be enhanced by expanding beyond the moderate chemical diversity of natural nucleic acids. Here, we explore the construction of nano-objects made entirely from alternative building blocks: synthetic genetic polymers not found in nature, also called xeno nucleic acids ...

P0005 Synthetic polymers, with repeat unit numbers of a few tens up to millions, are chemically simpler than their biological counterparts (proteins, DNA, polysaccharides). Homopolymers ideally consist of only one and the same repeat unit (monomer), and copolymers have a few, up to maybe three or four, chemically different monomers. Nevertheless, synthetic polymers are characterized by a wide c...

Scaffolds (artificial ECMs) play a pivotal role in the process of regenerating tissues in 3D. Biodegradable synthetic polymers are the most widely used scaffolding materials. However, synthetic polymers usually lack the biological cues found in the natural extracellular matrix. Significant efforts have been made to synthesize biodegradable polymers with functional groups that are used to couple...

Nucleobase interactions play a fundamental role in biological functions, including transcription and translation. Natural nucleic acids like DNA are also widely implemented in material realm such as DNA guided self-assembly of nanomaterials. Inspired by that, polymer chemists have contributed phenomenal endeavors to mimic both the structures and functions of natural nucleic acids in synthetic p...

objective polyethylenimine (pei), a readily available synthetic polycation which has high transfection efficiency owing to its buffering capacity was introduced for transfection a few years ago. but it has been reported that pei is cytotoxic in many cell lines. in this study, in order to enhance the transfection efficiency of 10 kda pei and reduce its toxicity, hydrophobic residues were grafted...

BACKGROUND Statistical reports show that every year around the world approximately 15 million bone fractures occur; of which up to 10% fail to heal completely and hence lead to complications of non-union healing. In the past, autografts or allografts were used as the "gold standard" of treating such defects. However, due to various limitations and risks associated with these sources of bone gra...

Keratin and collagen are ones of the most abundant proteins which can be used in a variety of biomedical application due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability. Even though, keratin and collagen biomaterials are very high potential for tissue engineering applications. But, the major disadvantages of the natural biomolecules are their poor mechanical properties. Therefore it must be modi...

The study of optically active polymers is a very active research field, and these materials have exhibited a number of interesting properties. Much of the attention in chiral polymers results from the potential of these materials for several specialized utilizations that are chiral matrices for asymmetric synthesis, chiral stationary phases for the separation of racemic mixtures, synthetic mole...