A biochemical network can control formation of a synthetic material by sensing numerous specific stimuli.

ABSTRACT: Developing bio-compatible smart materials that assemble in response to environmental cues requires strategies that can discriminate multiple specific stimuli in a complex milieu. Synthetic materials have yet to achieve this level of sensitivity, which would emulate the highly evolved and tailored reaction networks of complex biological systems. Here we show that the output of a naturally occurring network can be replaced with a synthetic material. Exploiting the blood coagulation system as an exquisite biological sensor, the fibrin clot end-product was replaced with a synthetic material under the biological control of a precisely regulated cross-linking enzyme. The functions of the coagulation network remained intact when the material was incorporated. Clot-like polymerization was induced

SUBMITTER: Hun Yeon J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4432564 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature