Understanding, reproducing, and regulating the cellular and molecular processes underlying human embryogenesis is critical to improve our ability to recapitulate tissues with proper architecture and function, and to address the dysregulation of embryonic programs that underlies birth defects and cancer. The rapid emergence of stem cell technologies is enabling enormous progress in understanding embryogenesis using simple, powerful, and accessible in vitro models. Biomaterials are playing a central role in providing the spatiotemporal organisation of biophysical and biochemical signalling necessary to mimic, regulate and dissect the evolving embryonic niche in vitro. This contribution is rapidly improving our understanding of the mechanisms underlying embryonic patterning, in turn enabling the development of more effective clinical interventions for regenerative medicine and oncology. Here we highlight how key biomaterial approaches contribute to organise signalling in human embryogenesis models, and we summarise the biological insights gained from these contributions. Importantly, we highlight how nanotechnology approaches have remained largely untapped in this space, and we identify their key potential contributions.The present review focuses on the use of Metal-Organic Frameworks, (MOFs) highlighting the most recent developments in the biological field. This review assesses, in the first instance, the cytotoxicity of MOFs (particularly those used for various biological applications described throughout this review), and shows that for standard MOFs based on metals already present in active molecules of the human body, toxicity is not a significant limitation. Here we underline the MIL-, UiO- and ZIF-series of MOFs which remain until now the most used materials in drug delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), such as antitumourals or retroviral drugs (with high loading and slow release time). Porosity remains undoubtedly the most studied key property of MOFs, that allows the protection of active biomolecules such as enzymes or the development of antimicrobial materials. Emphasis is given on the usage of MOFs for the detection of biomarkers in biological fluids such as urine and blood (detection of cystinuria, identification of penicillin anaphylaxis, urea, bilirubin, biomarkers related to human intoxication, tumoural indicators, among several others), for which a number of simple devices (such as paper strips) were developed. Despite the remarkable and promising results presented in recent years, the literature remains scarce (mostly non-existent) in terms of direct comparison of these novel technologies with the solutions presently available in the market. Action on this side may make the difference in the next years concerning research on MOFs, to see if some of these materials may reach the end-user as new and more efficient treatments or detection approaches.Natural dispersants and flocculants, often referred to as dispersion stabilizers and liquid-solid separators, respectively, have secured a promising role in the bioprocessing community. They have various applications, including in biomedicine and in environmental remediation. A large fraction of existing dispersants and flocculants are synthesized from non-safe chemical compounds such as polyacrylamide and surfactants. Despite numerous advantages of synthetic dispersants and flocculants, issues such as renewability, sustainability, biocompatibility, and cost efficiency have shifted attention towards natural homologues, in particular, cellulose-based ones. Within the past decade, cellulose derivatives, obtained via chemical and mechanical treatments of cellulose fibrils, have successfully been used for these purposes. In this review article, by dividing the functional cellulosic compounds into "polymeric" and "nanoscale" categories, we provide insight into the engineering pathways, the structural frameworks, and surface chemistry of these "green" types of dispersants and flocculants. A summary of their efficiency and the controlling parameters is also accompanied by recent advances in their applications in each section. We are confident that the emergence of cellulose-based dispersing and flocculating agents will extend the boundaries of sustainable green technology.The field of electrochemistry promises solutions for the future energy crisis and environmental deterioration by developing optimized batteries, fuel-cells and catalysts. Combined with in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), it can reveal functional and structural changes. A drawback of this relatively young field is lack of reproducibility in controlling the liquid environment while retaining the imaging and analytical capabilities. Here, a platform for in situ electrochemical studies inside a TEM with a pressure-driven flow is presented, with the capability to control the flow direction and to ensure the liquid will always pass through the region of interest. As a result, the system offers the opportunity to define the mass transport and control the electric potential, giving access to the full kinetics of the redox reaction. In order to show the benefits of the system, copper dendrites are electrodeposited and show reliable electric potential control. Obeticholic Next, their morphology is changed by tuning the mass transport conditions. Finally, at a liquid thickness of approximately 100 nm, the diffraction pattern revealed the 1,1,1 planes of the copper crystals, indicating an atomic resolution down to 2.15 Å. Such control of the liquid thickness enabled elemental mapping, allowing us to distinguish the spatial distribution of different elements in liquid.Molecules in gas and liquid states, as well as in solution, exhibit significant and random Brownian motion. Molecules in the solid-state, although strongly immobilized, can still exhibit significant intramolecular dynamics. However, in most framework materials, these intramolecular dynamics are driven by temperature, and therefore are neither controlled nor spatially or temporarily aligned. In recent years, several examples of molecular machines that allow for a stimuli-responsive control of dynamical motion, such as rotation, have been reported. In this contribution, we investigate the local and global properties of a Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid surrounding a molecular motor and consider the influence of cooperative and non-directional rotation for a molecular motor-containing pore system. This study uses classical molecular dynamics simulations to describe a minimal model, which was developed to resemble known molecular motors. The properties of an LJ liquid surrounding an isolated molecular motor remain mostly unaffected by the introduced rotation.