A mini review on cell interactions with biological metamaterials

Authors

• Lohit Malik * ¹

• Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540 USA

Abstract

The mini review summarizes the interactions between biological cells and high aspect ratio nanostructures termed as biological metamaterials, while focusing on what happens at the fundamental level. The questions pertaining to the interfacial phenomenon producing modes of interaction, what instigates them, what are the favourable conditions for controlled interaction, and how are they influenced by the nanostructure geometry are answered constructively. Recent but widely distributed cell-nanostructure interaction modelling techniques ranging from elastic theory models to molecular dynamics simulations are weaved together to extract out the possible ways of optimizing the interaction.  High impact of the nanostructure design, its sharpness, spacing, aspect ratio, and the membrane properties are observed on the biological response. 

Keywords

• Elastic theory
• Conditions for controlled interaction
• Biological metamaterials
• Cell-nanostructure interaction
• Biointerface