Hans G. Börner and Helmut Schlaad of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany, discuss the approaches to sophisticated functional hybrid block copolymers.

1. Can you briefly describe what you achieved in this article and explain the significance of your article to the non-specialist?
Biomaterials are highly adapted to their purpose and usually superior to synthetic mimics. Frequently, this results from defined hierarchical structures that are facilitated by specific interactions of bioorganic macromolecules. Here we review the work utilizing biological concepts of structure formation to control structure and function in synthetic polymers. This can be realized by combining common synthetic polymers with biopolymer segments or such segments inspired or abstracted from biopolymers. The resulting AB-block copolymer hybrid materials or aggregates exhibit structure and frequently also functions beyond these of common block copolymer systems. Our review summarizes the bio-inspired approaches for the rational design of nano- and mircostructures in polymer science.

2. What has motivated you to conduct this work?
As synthetic polymer chemists, we were always inspired by the perfection of the design, structure and function of biological macromolecules. If the diversity of native peptide structures is compared with the existing possibilities of polymer and material science, it becomes clear that we still rapidly approach the limits of possible control. Therefore, we are interested in learning from biological structure formation processes and in transferring the mechanisms towards synthetic polymer science.

3. Where do you see this work developing in the future?
Mimicking nature with synthetic polymer materials will become a quickly developing field of material science. Currently, we are in the initial stages and learning how basic structures can be obtained with diverse synthetic polymers. Native materials are often high performance materials because different structures and compounds are fused together to a functional material. We frequently find inorganic materials, fiber elements, organic glues and compatibilizers between these compounds assembled together to make materials with properties beyond the simple summation of just the single components. Hence, we need to learn how these functional composite structures can be mimicked with synthetic polymers. One important issue, which needs to be addressed in the future, is further abstraction of the principles and mechanisms. This will allow the scale-up and will have an important impact on the costs. In our opinion "Artificial Biomaterials" are one interdisciplinary future target of material, polymer and bioscience since nature already demonstrates the possibilities. Moreover, bio-resources gets progressively more inexpensive compared to synthetic oil-based polymers. Perhaps in the future there will be an inversion taking place that we will talk about hybrids or conjugates in a sense that the biocomponent is the inexpensive part conjugated to a small synthetic polymer as expensive component and for that we need to learn how biomaterials are working and how to abstract the principles of these.

4. Are there any particular challenges facing future research in this area?
The main difficulties will arise from the complexity of biosegments and the targeted composites. Currently simple peptide units with predictable properties are used. However, to expand the possibilities, larger and more complex biomacromolecule segments will be required, the properties and behavior of which will be progressively more difficult to predict.

Hans G. Börner received his Ph.D. degree in the field of macromolecular science in 2000 from the Phillips University in Marburg, Germany. He held a postdoctorial position with Prof. Krzysztof Matyjaszewski at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, USA). Currently he is an Emmy-Noether-fellow of the German Research Foundation and head of a research group in the colloid chemistry department of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (Potsdam). His research interests are focused on polymer bio-conjugates to control well-defined interactions in macromolecular systems.

Helmut Schlaad studied chemistry at the University of Mainz and received a Ph.D. in 1997 (supervisor: Prof. Axel. H. E. Müller). After one year as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, he joined the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam. He finished habilitation and became senior scientist in 2003. His research interests are directed towards bio-inspired structure formation of synthetic and biohybrid polymers.