Design of biomaterials with enzymatic logic gates

Enzymes are nature's catalysts, essentially lowering the energy required for a reaction to occur with a sort of lock-and-key activation mechanism. They are like the gatekeepers to the reaction's progression. Within the last decade, the use of enzymes as logic gates for elementary computing applications has attracted increasing interest. The EU-funded BioMaGic project is exploiting the use of enzymes to incorporate logic gates into therapeutic biomaterials. Biomaterial coatings or 3D constructs created using enzymatically active hydrogel particles will allow the materials to receive and process multiple biochemical signals (inputs) and enable specific therapeutic 'outputs' depending on the combination of inputs. The novel biomaterials with logic-based therapeutic activity will enable exquisitely tailored therapeutic responses depending on multiple biochemical signals in physiological cascades.