Bioinspired hydrogels build a bridge from bench to bedside

Abstract During million years, Nature has created a “wealthy repertoire of novel features.” These features are frequently used in the fabric of artificial materials, referred to as “biomaterials.” Hydrogels are among the most attractive biomaterials because they are highly amenable to accept nature-derived properties/functionalities. The inclusion of these features in biomaterials serves as promising tools for today’s most urged clinical needs, among others. In this review, we explore the major applications of different bioinspired hydrogels. We focused on rationale design, multi-faceted biomimetics strategies, and their potentials utility in the clinic. For the clinical application, we focused on four major clinical areas of i) regenerative medicine, ii) tissue engineering, iii) cancer therapy, and iv) bioinspired devices/actuators/robots. We discussed how incorporating nature-inspired properties into hydrogels’ design can introduce novel solutions to the many unresolved and persistent problems in biomedicine. Finally, given the complexity of bioinspired hydrogels, we propose that a collective effort among the material scientists, artificial intelligence experts, clinicians, and life sciences is required to pave the path for the entrance of bioinspired hydrogel into personalized medicine and from bench to bedside.