Abstract
The design of biomaterials that can modulate the immune system (immunobioengineering) is an emerging field. Examples are the engineering of material surfaces to induce or prevent complement activation, the engineering of antigen or adjuvant carriers for subunit vaccine delivery, and the engineering of microenvironments to determine the interaction kinetics of mature dendritic cells and naïve T cells. One of the major advantages of material-based therapy is the cost-effectiveness or availability in the low-infrastructured area; e.g., wet formulations and unrefrigerated storage, preferably needle-free administration routes and few doses, and materials that can be easily manufactured and contain a minimal number of biological molecules. In this review, we describe the current state of immunobioengineering from the materials science viewpoints, and give a perspective on its current and future directions.
