Dynamic biomaterials to study, manipulate and screen cell-matrix interactions

基于生物材料的策略有可能通过了解和控制细胞与环境的行为方式来改善人类健康，这最终将导致治疗疾病的材料的开发。细胞周围是一个动态的四维细胞外基质(ECM)，由大分子形式的化学和机械信号组成，这些大分子在空间和时间上发生变化。目前，我们依赖过时和低效的工具来研究存在于ECM中的细胞-材料界面。因此，我们需要构建性能可以很容易地定制和随时间改变的材料，以探测细胞-材料界面的相互作用。对于材料科学家和生物学家来说，这是一个很好的机会，可以更好地了解细胞环境的重要性，更好地阐明材料如何、何时以及为什么影响细胞行为。

Biomaterials based strategies have the potential to improve human health by understanding and controlling the way cells behave with their environment, which will ultimately lead to the development of materials for the treatment of diseases. Cells are surround by a dynamic four-dimensional extracellular matrix (ECM) composed of chemical and mechanical signals in the form of macromolecules that change in space and time. Currently, we rely on outdated and inefficient tools to study the cell-material interfaces that exists in the ECM. Therefore, we need to build materials where properties can be easily tailored and changed over time to probe interactions at the cell-material interface. There is a great opportunity for material scientists and biologists to work together to better understand the importance of the cellular environment and better elucidate how, when and why materials influence cellular behaviours.