Sword and Board in One: A Bioinspired Nanocomposite Membrane for Guided Bone Regeneration

Guided bone regeneration (GBR) faces far from a one-dimensional challenge. It demands a multifunctional membrane to possess paradoxical but essential properties in sophisticated clinical scenarios. Drawing inspiration from natural biological structures and superior properties, through a combination of structure innovation and composition regulation, a multicomponent nacre-inspired discontinuous Bouligand structure is devised and transcribed into a bioinspired Janus nanocomposite membrane with comprehensive properties for GBR, identical to "sword and board." As a sword, our membrane can actively adapt to sharp bony ridges owing to high toughness, capture water molecules for fluid penetration, drive osteogenic expression, and kill bacteria. As a board, it can achieve superior mechanical strength to withstand external forces, passively maintain structural integrity for ingrowth barrier, while function as a passive substrate for cell adhesion and proliferation. Overall, the membrane with excellent mechanical properties and bio-functions is the paradigm of the combinatorial design of component and structure. It achieves the contradictory yet prerequisite features in response to the current challenge and offers new hope to advance biomedical applications. Equally important, the fabrication of our multifunctional bioinspired membrane is mild, efficient, scalable, and thus is poised to inspire the design of a broader range of functional material systems.