In the past decade, bioinspired materials have progressed from a niche area of materials science to a burgeoning field with a wide range of promising applications. In order to continue to provide bioinspired material design ideas that can sustain the ongoing development of advanced biomimetic materials, it is critical to maintain a deep focus on basic biological discoveries across multiple length scales, from the molecular level to macroscopic structures. Thus the first part of the symposium will focus on fundamental discoveries and will include topics such as primary sequencing of protein-based biopolymers, elucidation of processing pathways by which liquid secretion phase-transition into solid functional materials, or characterization of mechanical design of macroscopic structures. At the same time, it is also important to demonstrate “success stories” of functional biomimetic materials inspired by such basic discoveries. Silk-based materials, bioinspired adhesives, supramolecular materials stabilized by coordination complexes, protein-based hydrogels, or complex coacervates with applications in medicine are a few such examples with demonstrated success in recent years, which the second part of the symposium will showcase.

adhesion adhesive biological biomaterial biomimetic (assembly) elastic properties fiber liquid toughness viscoelasticity