Supramolecular polymers with specific, directional, tunable and reversible non-covalent interactions should be advantageous for biomaterials as well as biomedical applications. For instance, the reversible nature of supramolecular polymers can produce biomaterials that can sense and respond to physiological cues, or that mimic the structural and functional aspects of biological signaling. On the basis of their formation mechanisms, supramolecular biomaterials can be broadly classified as: (1) materials prepared from one-dimensional assemblies of molecular stacking motifs as in the case of peptide amphiphiles introduced by Samuel I. Stupp, and (2) materials prepared through chain extension of oligomers or through crosslinking of polymeric precursors by specific supramolecular recognition motifs.
Rationally designed supramolecular polymers-based polymers can simultaneously meet the requirements of aqueous compatibility, bio-degradability, biocompatibility, stimuli-responsiveness and other strict criterion. Consequently, supramolecular polymers can be applied to the biomedical field as a robust system. Other than applications mentioned above, other important and fascinating biomedical applications, like protein delivery, bio-imaging and diagnosis and tissue engineering, are also well developed.