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A Comparison of the Mechanical Properties of ECM Components and Synthetic Self-Assembling Peptides (2025)
Journal Article
Hartley, A., Williams, P. M., & Mata, A. (2025). A Comparison of the Mechanical Properties of ECM Components and Synthetic Self-Assembling Peptides. Advanced Healthcare Materials, Article 2402385. https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202402385

The field of tissue engineering is increasingly moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach of simple synthetic homogeneous gels, and embracing more tailored designs to optimize cell function and differentiation for the organ of interest. Extracell... Read More about A Comparison of the Mechanical Properties of ECM Components and Synthetic Self-Assembling Peptides.

Noninvasive Monitoring of Palmitoyl Hexapeptide-12 in Human Skin Layers: Mechanical Interaction with Skin Components and Its Potential Skincare Benefits (2025)
Journal Article
Ligorio, C., Tavasoli, E., Karaman-Jurukovska, N., Ittycheri, A., Kotowska, A. M., Khan, M. H., Scurr, D. J., Gupta, S. A., Moogan, L. V., Emmetsberger, J., Lu, F., German, G. K., Mammone, T., & Mata, A. (2025). Noninvasive Monitoring of Palmitoyl Hexapeptide-12 in Human Skin Layers: Mechanical Interaction with Skin Components and Its Potential Skincare Benefits. ACS Applied Bio Materials, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsabm.4c01816

Self-assembling peptides (SAPs) represent a rich source of building blocks that interact with biological structures. For instance, cosmetic SAPs like Palmitoyl hexapeptide-12 have gained increasing interest for their anti-aging properties. However, t... Read More about Noninvasive Monitoring of Palmitoyl Hexapeptide-12 in Human Skin Layers: Mechanical Interaction with Skin Components and Its Potential Skincare Benefits.

Biocooperative Regenerative Materials by Harnessing Blood-Clotting and Peptide Self-Assembly (2024)
Journal Article
Padilla-Lopategui, S., Ligorio, C., Bu, W., Yin, C., Laurenza, D., Redondo, C., Owen, R., Sun, H., Rose, F. R., Iskratsch, T., & Mata, A. (2024). Biocooperative Regenerative Materials by Harnessing Blood-Clotting and Peptide Self-Assembly. Advanced Materials, 36(52), Article 2407156. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202407156

The immune system has evolved to heal small ruptures and fractures with remarkable efficacy through regulation of the regenerative hematoma (RH); a rich and dynamic environment that coordinates numerous molecular and cellular processes to achieve com... Read More about Biocooperative Regenerative Materials by Harnessing Blood-Clotting and Peptide Self-Assembly.

Biofabrication and biomanufacturing in Ireland and the UK (2024)
Journal Article
Murphy, J. F., Lavelle, M., Asciak, L., Burdis, R., Levis, H. J., Ligorio, C., McGuire, J., Polleres, M., Smith, P. O., Tullie, L., Uribe-Gomez, J., Chen, B., Dawson, J. I., Gautrot, J. E., Hooper, N. M., Kelly, D. J., Li, V. S. W., Mata, A., Pandit, A., Phillips, J. B., …Huang, Y. Y. S. (2024). Biofabrication and biomanufacturing in Ireland and the UK. Bio-Design and Manufacturing, 7(6), 825-856. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42242-024-00316-z

As we navigate the transition from the Fourth to the Fifth Industrial Revolution, the emerging fields of biomanufacturing and biofabrication are transforming life sciences and healthcare. These sectors are benefiting from a synergy of synthetic and e... Read More about Biofabrication and biomanufacturing in Ireland and the UK.

Disassembly of self-assembling peptide hydrogels as a versatile method for cell extraction and manipulation (2024)
Journal Article
Ligorio, C., Martinez-Espuga, M., Laurenza, D., Hartley, A., Rodgers, C. B., Kotowska, A. M., Scurr, D. J., Dalby, M. J., Ordóñez-Morán, P., & Mata, A. (2024). Disassembly of self-assembling peptide hydrogels as a versatile method for cell extraction and manipulation. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 12(46), 11939-11952. https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TB01575D

Self-assembling peptide hydrogels (SAPHs) are increasingly being used as two-dimensional (2D) cell culture substrates and three-dimensional (3D) matrices due to their tunable properties and biomimicry of native tissues. Despite these advantages, SAPH... Read More about Disassembly of self-assembling peptide hydrogels as a versatile method for cell extraction and manipulation.

084 Cosmetic peptide penetration and assembly in human skin: A label-free approach (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Ligorio, C., Kotowska, A., Scurr, D., Tavasoli, E., Karaman-Jurukovska, N., Mata, A., Moogan, L., German, G., Lu, F., & Mammone, T. (2024, May). 084 Cosmetic peptide penetration and assembly in human skin: A label-free approach. Presented at Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID) 2024 Meeting, Dallas, TX

Sparsely PEGylated poly(beta-amino ester) polyplexes enhance antigen specific T-cell response of a bivalent SARS-CoV-2 DNA vaccine (2024)
Journal Article
Bayraktutan, H., Symonds, P., Brentville, V. A., Moloney, C., Galley, C., Bennett, C. L., Mata, A., Durrant, L., Alexander, C., & Gurnani, P. (2024). Sparsely PEGylated poly(beta-amino ester) polyplexes enhance antigen specific T-cell response of a bivalent SARS-CoV-2 DNA vaccine. Biomaterials, 311, Article 122647. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2024.122647

DNA technology has emerged as a promising route to accelerated manufacture of sequence agnostic vaccines. For activity, DNA vaccines must be protected and delivered to the correct antigen presenting cells. However, the physicochemical properties of t... Read More about Sparsely PEGylated poly(beta-amino ester) polyplexes enhance antigen specific T-cell response of a bivalent SARS-CoV-2 DNA vaccine.

A self‐assembled 3D model demonstrates how stiffness educates tumor cell phenotypes and therapy resistance in pancreatic cancer (2024)
Journal Article
Liu, Y., Okesola, B. O., de la Peña, D. O., Li, W., Lin, M., Trabulo, S. M. D., Tatari, M., Lawlor, R. T., Scarpa, A., Wang, W., Knight, M., Loessner, D., Heeschen, C., Mata, A., & Pearce, O. M. (in press). A self‐assembled 3D model demonstrates how stiffness educates tumor cell phenotypes and therapy resistance in pancreatic cancer. Advanced Healthcare Materials, Article 2301941. https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202301941

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by a dense and stiff extracellular matrix (ECM) associated with tumor progression and therapy resistance. To further the understanding of how stiffening of the tumor microenvironment (TME) cont... Read More about A self‐assembled 3D model demonstrates how stiffness educates tumor cell phenotypes and therapy resistance in pancreatic cancer.

Co-assembling living material as an in vitro lung epithelial infection model (2023)
Journal Article
Wu, Y., Romero, M., Robertson, S. N., Fenn, S., Fisher, L., Willingham, I., Martinez Pomares, L., Ligorio, C., Hill, J., Bu, W., Zhou, Z., Wildman, R. D., Ghaemmaghami, A. M., Sun, H., Sun, J., Cámara, M., & Mata, A. (2024). Co-assembling living material as an in vitro lung epithelial infection model. Matter, 7(1), 216-236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2023.10.029

Biofilms are robust living 3D materials that play key roles in nature but also cause major problems, such as tolerance to antibiotic treatment. Recreation of these living structures in vitro is critical to understand their biology and develop solutio... Read More about Co-assembling living material as an in vitro lung epithelial infection model.

Bioactive and chemically defined hydrogels with tunable stiffness guide cerebral organoid formation and modulate multi-omics plasticity in cerebral organoids (2023)
Journal Article
Isik, M., Okesola, B. O., Eylem, C. C., Kocak, E., Nemutlu, E., D'Este, M., Mata, A., & Derkus, B. (2023). Bioactive and chemically defined hydrogels with tunable stiffness guide cerebral organoid formation and modulate multi-omics plasticity in cerebral organoids. Acta Biomaterialia, 171, 223-238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2023.09.040

Organoids are an emerging technology with great potential in human disease modelling, drug development, diagnosis, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Organoids as 3D-tissue culture systems have gained special attention in the past decades... Read More about Bioactive and chemically defined hydrogels with tunable stiffness guide cerebral organoid formation and modulate multi-omics plasticity in cerebral organoids.

Elastin-like recombinamer-mediated hierarchical mineralization coatings on Zr-16Nb-xTi (x=4,16wt%) alloy surfaces improve biocompatibility (2023)
Journal Article
Xue, R., Deng, X., Xu, X., Tian, Y., Hasan, A., Mata, A., Zhang, L., & Liu, L. (2023). Elastin-like recombinamer-mediated hierarchical mineralization coatings on Zr-16Nb-xTi (x=4,16wt%) alloy surfaces improve biocompatibility. Biomaterials Advances, 151, Article 213471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioadv.2023.213471

The biocompatibility of biomedical materials is vital to their applicability and functionality. However, modifying surfaces for enhanced biocompatibility using traditional surface treatment techniques is challenging. We employed a mineralizing elasti... Read More about Elastin-like recombinamer-mediated hierarchical mineralization coatings on Zr-16Nb-xTi (x=4,16wt%) alloy surfaces improve biocompatibility.

Synthetic extracellular matrices with function-encoding peptides (2023)
Journal Article
Ligorio, C., & Mata, A. (2023). Synthetic extracellular matrices with function-encoding peptides. Nature Reviews Bioengineering, 1, 518–536. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-023-00055-3

The communication of cells with their surroundings is mostly encoded in the epitopes of structural and signalling proteins present in the extracellular matrix (ECM). These peptide epitopes can be incorporated in biomaterials to serve as function-enco... Read More about Synthetic extracellular matrices with function-encoding peptides.

Biomaterial-based platforms for tumour tissue engineering (2023)
Journal Article
Curvello, R., Kast, V., Ordóñez-Morán, P., Mata, A., & Loessner, D. (2023). Biomaterial-based platforms for tumour tissue engineering. Nature Reviews Materials, 8, 314–330. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-023-00535-3

Tissue engineering has produced innovative tools for cancer research. 3D cancer models based on molecularly designed biomaterials aim to harness the dimensionality and biomechanical and biochemical properties of tumour tissues. However, to date, desp... Read More about Biomaterial-based platforms for tumour tissue engineering.

Peptide–Protein Coassemblies into Hierarchical and Bioactive Tubular Membranes (2023)
Journal Article
Majkowska, A., Inostroza-Brito, K. E., Gonzalez, M., Redondo-Gómez, C., Rice, A., Rodriguez-Cabello, J. C., Del Rio Hernandez, A. E., & Mata, A. (2023). Peptide–Protein Coassemblies into Hierarchical and Bioactive Tubular Membranes. Biomacromolecules, 24(10), 4419-4429. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.2c01095

Multicomponent self-assembly offers opportunities for the design of complex and functional biomaterials with tunable properties. Here, we demonstrate how minor modifications in the molecular structures of peptide amphiphiles (PAs) and elastin-like re... Read More about Peptide–Protein Coassemblies into Hierarchical and Bioactive Tubular Membranes.

Disinfector-Assisted Low Temperature Reduced Graphene Oxide-Protein Surgical Dressing for the Postoperative Photothermal Treatment of Melanoma (2022)
Journal Article
Wu, Y., Yang, J., van Teijlingen, A., Berardo, A., Corridori, I., Feng, J., Xu, J., Titirici, M., Rodriguez‐Cabello, J. C., Pugno, N. M., Sun, J., Wang, W., Tuttle, T., & Mata, A. (2022). Disinfector-Assisted Low Temperature Reduced Graphene Oxide-Protein Surgical Dressing for the Postoperative Photothermal Treatment of Melanoma. Advanced Functional Materials, 32(38), Article 2205802. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202205802

Materials that combine the functionalities of both of proteins and graphene are of great interest for the engineering of biosensing, drug delivery, and regenerative devices. Graphene oxide (GO) offers an opportunity to design GO-protein interactions... Read More about Disinfector-Assisted Low Temperature Reduced Graphene Oxide-Protein Surgical Dressing for the Postoperative Photothermal Treatment of Melanoma.

Mineralizing Coating on 3D Printed Scaffolds for the Promotion of Osseointegration (2022)
Journal Article
Hasan, A., Bagnol, R., Owen, R., Latif, A., Rostam, H. M., Elsharkawy, S., Rose, F. R., Rodríguez-Cabello, J. C., Ghaemmaghami, A. M., Eglin, D., & Mata, A. (2022). Mineralizing Coating on 3D Printed Scaffolds for the Promotion of Osseointegration. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 10, Article 836386. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.836386

Design and fabrication of implants that can perform better than autologous bone grafts remain an unmet challenge for the hard tissue regeneration in craniomaxillofacial applications. Here, we report an integrated approach combining additive manufactu... Read More about Mineralizing Coating on 3D Printed Scaffolds for the Promotion of Osseointegration.

Rational design of hydrogels for immunomodulation (2022)
Journal Article
Bu, W., Wu, Y., Ghaemmaghami, A. M., Sun, H., & Mata, A. (2022). Rational design of hydrogels for immunomodulation. Regenerative Biomaterials, 9, Article rbac009. https://doi.org/10.1093/rb/rbac009

The immune system protects organisms against endogenous and exogenous harm and plays a key role in tissue development, repair and regeneration. Traditional immunomodulatory biologics exhibit limitations including degradation by enzymes, short half-li... Read More about Rational design of hydrogels for immunomodulation.

Embracing complexity in biomaterials design (2022)
Journal Article
Azevedo, H. S., & Mata, A. (2022). Embracing complexity in biomaterials design. Personnel Assessment and Decisions, 6, Article 100039. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbiosy.2022.100039

Animate materials, man-made materials behaving like living systems, are attracting enormous interest across a range of sectors, from construction and transport industry to medicine. In this leading opinion article, we propose that embracing complexit... Read More about Embracing complexity in biomaterials design.

Disordered Protein Stabilization by Co-Assembly of Short Peptides Enables Formation of Robust Membranes (2021)
Journal Article
Ghosh, M., Majkowska, A., Mirsa, R., Bera, S., Rodríguez-Cabello, J. C., Mata, A., & Adler-Abramovich, L. (2022). Disordered Protein Stabilization by Co-Assembly of Short Peptides Enables Formation of Robust Membranes. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 14(1), 464-473. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c22136

Molecular self-assembly is a spontaneous natural process resulting in highly ordered nano to microarchitectures. We report temperature-independent formation of robust stable membranes obtained by the spontaneous interaction of intrinsically disordere... Read More about Disordered Protein Stabilization by Co-Assembly of Short Peptides Enables Formation of Robust Membranes.