Biohybrid polymer

Low-molar mass lipids have been known for more than 30 years for their ability to self-assemble into vesicles or liposomes, however, with limited overall stability. Polymer membranes, on the other hand, are almost one order of magnitude tougher and at least 10 times less permeable to water than common phospholipids bilayers, due to the increased length and conformational freedom of polymer chains compared to lipids [1]. Biohybrid polymer vesicles combine the toughness of polymers and the biocompatibility of peptides or sugars, making them promising candidates... 

Advanced synthetic polymer chemistry provides a variety of sophisticated biohybrid polymers consisting of synthetic polymers and biologically relevant peptides and sugars. Biohybrid polymers can combine the advantageous features of being processable and robust as well as being biocompatible, functional, and selective. Biohybrid vesicles or membranes are considered as mimetics of biomembranes but with a better performance than liposomes. 

Acknowledgements H.S. thanks all former and present coworkers working in the field of biohybrid polymers and Erich C. (beerandfunandloudmusic). Financial support was given by the Max Planck Society and the German Research Foundation (within the Eurocores Programme BIOSONS). 

Since both the biopolymer-based (biomimetic, ECM-like) stmctures (such as Matrigel ) and fully synthetic polymer materials are limited with respect to the control over well-evolved biological mechanisms with tailorable physical properties, biohybrid polymer networks containing both synthetic and natural or S3mthetic and bioanalogous components are considered promising to develop morphogenetic or tissue-specific matrices. 

Biohybrid polymers to specifically interact with drugs 562... 

Particularly, the diversity of the existing examples of biohybrid polymers outlines the scope and potential of this dass of materials for the future. Nature shows the fasdnating possibilities of biopolymers and the integration of these systems into the world of synthetic polymer sdences as wdl as the abstraction of underlying concepts promise a wide range of opportunities. 

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