Living Cell-Mediated Self-Assembly: From Monomer Design and Morphology Regulation to Biomedical Applications.

The self-assembly of molecules into highly ordered architectures is a ubiquitous and natural process, wherein molecules spontaneously organize into large structures to perform diverse functions. Drawing inspiration from the formation of natural nanostructures, cell-mediated self-assembly has been developed to create functional assemblies both inside and outside living cells. These techniques have been employed to regulate the cellular world by leveraging the dynamic intracellular and extracellular microenvironment.