Converting Human Proteins into Precision Polymer Therapeutics

Cells as the smallest unit of life rely on precise macromolecules and programmable supramolecular interactions to accomplish the various vital functions. To translate such strategies to precisely control architectures and interactions into the synthetic world represents an exciting endeavor. Polymers with distinct structures, sequences and architectures are still challenging to achieve. However, in particular for biomedical applications, reproducible synthesis, narrow dispersities, tunable functionalities and additionally biocompatibility of the polymeric materials are crucial. Polymers derived from protein precursors provide many advantages of proteins such as precise monomer sequences and contour lengths, biodegradability and multiple functionalities, which can be synergistically combined with the valuable features of synthetic polymers e.g. stability, tunable solubility and molecular weights. The resulting polymeric biohybrid materials offer many applications ranging from drug delivery to biosensing and therapeutic hydrogels. This minireview summarizes the most recent advances in this field.