Inaugural lecture: Making Materials That Speak the Cellular Language

Biomaterials are materials designed to interact with the body, to support healing, deliver medicines, or detect disease. Over the past century, biomaterials have transformed modern medicine. Thanks to advances in nanotechnology, we can now build materials at a scale small enough to interact with individual cells. At this nanoscale, materials no longer engage tissues broadly; they touch only tiny regions of a cell’s surface. This makes biological communication far more precise and far more complex. Questions like where binding happens, when, how many molecular contacts are involved, and how strong the interaction is become critical. These parameters determine whether a material will be ignored, accepted, or actively trigger a biological response.

In the Programmable Biomaterials Laboratory, we explore how to control these interactions through multivalency: the principle that many weak molecular interactions, when working together, can achieve strong and selective binding. Using DNA as a programmable material, we can not only present multiple molecular signals but also precisely control their number, spacing, and geometry. Our “multivalent engineering” approach lets us test how different nanoscale patterns influence how cells respond to materials.

One key concept we developed is Interface Flexibility. We discovered that at the nanoscale, the mechanical structure of a material’s surface plays a central role in how it communicates with cells. Rigid interfaces promote selectivity, enabling precise activation of immune cells, while flexible interfaces blur the effect. We also introduced the theory of Multivalent Pattern Recognition: the ability of materials to recognize targets based on the spatial arrangement of multiple binding sites. By constraining these sites into defined geometric patterns, we could achieve super-selectivity: materials that bind only when all cues match a target cell’s molecular “signature.” We applied this concept not only to immune cell targeting, but also to identify new binders for pathogens including the virus responsible for COVID-19, by mimicking and exploiting the multivalent geometry of the viral spike protein.

Looking ahead, our goal is to build materials that don’t just work in the body, but communicate with it fluently, selectively, and intelligently. This opens the door to highly targeted therapies, diagnostics capable of detecting disease at its earliest onset, and materials that can distinguish and engage with many different cell types and tissues. By learning the language of cells and designing materials that speak it, we are creating powerful new tools for the future of personalized and predictive medicine.

Bio: Prof. Maartje Bastings is a biomaterials engineer whose research lies at the intersection of supramolecular materials science, biophysics, and cell biology. She leads the Programmable Biomaterials Laboratory (PBL), where her team pioneers the use of DNA as an engineering material to create dynamic, uniform nanostructures capable of precise, selective interactions with living systems. Central to her work is the concept of dynamic reciprocity, a two-way, responsive communication between soft materials and cells. Prof. Bastings' approach emphasizes multivalent engineering, using DNA to control the number, spacing, and geometry of molecular interactions. Her group has introduced key principles such as Interface Flexibility, demonstrating that nanoscale mechanical properties influence cellular selectivity, and Multivalent Pattern Recognition, enabling super-selective targeting of immune cells and viral pathogens by mimicking spatial patterns at the biointerface.
Over the past decade, she has emerged as a leader in bridging molecular self-assembly with functional cellular responses. By combining nanoscale material design with quantitative biophysical characterization, Prof. Bastings' research reveals how pattern and geometry govern biological recognition. Her work opens new directions for the development of next-generation vaccines, immune-modulating therapies, and diagnostics capable of detecting disease at its earliest onset. At its core, her research envisions materials that do more than interact with biology: they speak its language, enabling life-like communication and integration with cellular function.