Huge thanks to @joao-borges.bsky.social for inviting me to be a part of this work, and of course to my lead co-author Vera Sousa. Further acknowledgments to fellow co-authors J.F. Mano, E.W. Meijer, P. Dankers, S. Lecommandeaux and E. Garanger for lending their extensive expertise to this article.

In this Perspective, we reflect on the history of both Nature-derived and synthetic supramolecular biomaterials, the race to recreate the extracellular matrix, and potential avenues for scientists from the natural and supramolecular worlds to join forces so that we may achieve our common goal.

Anyway, that’s enough chattering from me. As part of my deal with the Universe, I now have to go update my LinkedIn, so please excuse me.

Thank you for the warm welcome, João!

(I joked that I would start sharing my work on social media seriously if this article finally got published. It got accepted the very next morning, so now I have to, huh? Remember kids, if you bargain with the Universe, sometimes it will take you up on your offer)

I will keep this thread pinned, so if you are coming here from the future and are interested in my work, here is the first article from my PhD, which was just published, and is also the reason why I am here now.

Of course, I have to acknowledge that this research would not be possible without the support of my co-authors Dr. Maria Clara Gomes (@mclarag.bsky.social), Dr. Kongchang Wei, Dr. Catarina Custódio and Professor João Mano, as well as my fellow researchers at @compass-rg.bsky.social