Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Polymer Microarrays for High Throughput Discovery of Biomaterials
Published on: January 25, 2012
Polymer chemistry at the living-material interface
Masamu Kawada1, Seunghyun Sim2
1Department of Chemistry, University of California San Diego USA.
None:
Engineered living materials (ELMs) integrate living functionalities into synthetic materials. Although most ELM studies emphasize cellular functionality, the polymer matrix represents an equally powerful design space: not merely a passive scaffold but a primary tool for programming living material behavior. Synthetic polymers can be designed to tune bulk mechanical properties, mediate dynamic responses, enforce biocontainment, and bridge biological and synthetic domains through engineered polymer-cell interfaces. This Perspective establishes key design principles that emerge when polymer chemistry and living cells are treated as an integrated system, emphasizing how molecular control over the living-material interface governs the mechanical, functional, and dynamic properties of next-generation biohybrid and biocomposite materials.
Related Concept Videos
Polymers
Polymers
Polymers
Polymer Classification: Architecture
Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
Anionic Chain-Growth Polymerization: Mechanism

