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Magnetic nanostickers for active control of interface-enhanced selective bioadhesion

  • Changshun Hou*
  • , Junjia Guo
  • , Bonan Sun
  • , Kai Fung Chan
  • , Xin Song
  • , Li Zhang*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

95 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

Natural biological tissues exhibit different mechanical and surface properties. These disparate features make their connections with engineering materials quite difficult due to the lack of universal methods for tuning the interfacial bonding over a wide range. However, the precise control of interfacial properties, including modulus and adhesion on diverse biological tissues, requires overcoming multiple inherent and external barriers. Here we propose an interface-enhanced strategy by spatial and temporal anchoring of magnetic nanostickers for controlled bioadhesive properties. Fully exploiting the interactions from nanostickers by remote control enables the attached patch to achieve extremely high adhesion energy ( ~ 1250 J m-2) and interfacial fatigue resistance with a threshold of ~50 J m-2, at a very low area density of nanostickers (4 μg/mm2). The controlled interfacial properties as well as space and time for anchoring, lead to comprehensively tunable bioadhesion on diverse tissues such as skin, intestine, liver, and kidney, which are strongly desired in biomedical applications. Integration with fragile tissues in female Sprague-Dawley rats for 10 days further demonstrates that the anchored biointerface can adapt to the in vivo environment and promote postoperative recovery. The biointerface bridged by intelligent nanostickers prompts the methodology for bioadhesion towards controllable orientation. © The Author(s) 2025
Original languageEnglish
Article number6400
JournalNature Communications
Volume16
Online published10 Jul 2025
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2025

Funding

The authors acknowledge the support by the Innovation and Technology Fund (No. PsH/040/23) (C.H.), Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) with project Nos. RFS2122-4S03, R4015-21, N_CUHK472/24, GRF 14209024, GRF 14205823, GRF 14301122, GRF 14300621, GRF 14203123, Strategic Topics Grant (project No. STG1/E-401/23-N), and the CUHK internal grants (L.Z.). The authors also thank the support from Multi-Scale Medical Robotics Centre (MRC), InnoHK, at the Hong Kong Science Park, the SIAT-CUHK Joint Laboratory of Robotics and Intelligent Systems and Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences. The authors finally thank Dr. Wenqing He and Dr. Liqing Ai to help on materials characterization and biocompatibility evaluations.

Publisher's Copyright Statement

  • This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

RGC Funding Information

  • RGC-funded

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