Recent advances in polymer chemistry and micro-fabrication have enabled the creation of adaptive materials capable of responding to external stimuli across multiple length scales. By integrating stimuli-responsive units at the molecular level with precise three-dimensional design, it is now possible to engineer synthetic systems that exhibit controlled motion, shape change and sensing. 1-3...
Hydrogels are ideal materials for mimicking the properties of natural tissues such as lymph nodes. Hydrogel interactions with cells and biomolecules can be well understood using appropriate simulation techniques, allowing a rational design of these materials for specific biomedical applications involving ex-vivo procedures. For example, we have recently proposed hydrogels for cancer...
Recently, there has been growing interest in developing biomimetic strategies that provide enhanced spatiotemporal control over molecular self-assembly, enabling access to structures and properties that are unattainable under thermodynamic control. One approach involves mimicking the dissipative self-assembly of cytoskeletal microtubules, which continuously consume chemical fuels to regulate...
A frequent experimental realization of a microswimmer relies on self-chemophoresis. Chemophoresis (also called diffusiophoresis) denotes the motion of a particle immersed in a fluid solution due to a composition gradient. And self-chemophoresis pertains to the case that the gradient is generated by the particle itself through catalytic activity on its surface.
Conceptually one can write...
