Synthetic 3D Extracellular Matrices (ECM) find application in cell studies, regenerative medicine and drug discovery. While cells cultured in a monolayer may exhibit unnatural behavior and develop very different phenotypes and genotypes than in vivo, great efforts in materials chemistry have been devoted to reproduce in vitro the in vivo cell mi-croenvironments, which requires a fine tuning of the biochemical and structural actors varying in a spatiotemporal fashion to regulate the cell fate. This review will present the fundamentals of ECM, cover the chemical and structural features of the scaffolds used to generate ECM mimics, discuss the nature of the signaling biomolecules required and exploited to generate bioresponsive cell microenvironments able to induce a specific cell fate, and highlights the syn-thetic strategies involved to create functional 3D ECM mimics.

Functionalisation of polymers using organosilanes via nucleophilic attack of the epoxide rings is successful under mild pH when the polymers contain carboxylic groups.

Covering: 2000 to 2010 Kdo belongs to the 3-deoxysugar ‘family’ and is a critical monosaccharidic component of lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) in Gram-negative bacteria. The incorporation of Kdo into LPSs is a vital step in the assembly of the protective outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. This review intends to present recent advances on structural/biocatalytic knowledge on the four enzymes involved in Kdo metabolism, and on the synthesis and biological activity of analogues of biosynthetic intermediates, highlighting the potential of this pathway for the discovery of new antibacterials – a pressing need due to the emergence of new classes of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.