Owing to their unique chemical and physical properties, hydrogels are attracting increasing
attention in both basic and translational biomedical studies. Although the classical hydrogels …

Nanomaterials that can circulate in the body hold great potential to diagnose and treat
disease 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 . For such applications, it is important that the nanomaterials be harmlessly …

Fluorescence imaging is one of the most versatile and widely used visualization methods in
biomedical research. However, tissue autofluorescence is a major obstacle confounding …

Natural extracellular matrices (ECMs) are viscoelastic and exhibit stress relaxation. However,
hydrogels used as synthetic ECMs for three-dimensional (3D) culture are typically elastic. …

Variations in a multitude of material microenvironmental properties have been observed
across tissues in vivo, and these have profound effects on cell phenotype. Phenomenological …

The microenvironment is increasingly recognized to have key roles in cancer, and biomaterials
provide a means to engineer microenvironments both in vitro and in vivo to study and …

Recent far-reaching advances in synthetic biology have yielded exciting tools for the
creation of new materials. Conversely, advances in the fundamental understanding of soft-…

Studies of cellular mechanotransduction have converged upon the idea that cells sense
extracellular matrix (ECM) elasticity by gauging resistance to the traction forces they exert on the …

Cartilage tissue equivalents formed from hydrogels containing chondrocytes could provide
a solution for replacing damaged cartilage. Previous approaches have often utilized elastic …

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) have garnered a great deal of attention as potential
carriers for therapeutic payloads. However, achieving triggered drug release from MSNPs …