Growth-Coupled Assembly of Hydrogen-Bonded Organic Framework Membranes on Cell Surfaces

Constructing functional materials on cell surfaces offers a promising strategy to enhance cellular robustness and functionality; however, most existing approaches rely on static shells that are incompatible with the dynamic nature of biological interfaces. This mismatch imposes an inherent trade-off between sustained protection and cellular proliferation. Inspired by natural membranes that integrate covalently structured functional units within dynamic, noncovalent matrices, we developed a hydrogen-bonding-mediated, growth-coupled assembly strategy to engineer adaptive porous membranes on living cells. Nanosized hydrogen-bonded organic framework (HOF) particles act as dynamic reservoirs of building units that, together with multivalent interfacial interactions, promote surface enrichment, reorganization, and crystallization into continuous membranes. This dynamic assembly mechanism accommodates cellular proliferation while maintaining structural integrity, cytoprotection, and selective molecular transport. Furthermore, the adaptive membranes impart photoactivity that couples with cellular metabolism, allowing light-driven cofactor regeneration and boosting triterpenoid betulinic acid production by 4.8-fold in engineered yeast while maintaining stress tolerance. This study establishes a design principle for integrating adaptive functional artificial membranes with living cells.