Modular, tissue-specific, and biodegradable hydrogel cross-linkers for tissue engineering.

The article reports that synthetic hydrogels are investigated extensively in tissue engineering for their tunable physicochemical properties but are bioinert and lack the tissue-specific cues to produce appropriate biological responses. The authors we have developed a modular hydrogel cross-linker that can be functionalized with small peptide-based cues and large macromolecular cues simply by mixing PdBT in water with the appropriate biomolecules at room temperature.