Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is a central metabolite that plays an indispensable role in various cellular processes, from energy supply to cell‐to‐cell signaling. Nature has developed sophisticated strategies to use the energy stored in ATP for many metabolic and non‐equilibrium processes, and to sense and bind ATP for biological signaling. The variations in the ATP concentrations from one organelle to another, from extracellular to intracellular environments, and from normal cells to cancer cells are one motivation for designing ATP‐triggered and ATP‐fueled systems and materials, because they show great potential for applications in biological systems by using ATP as a trigger or chemical fuel. Over the last decade, ATP has been emerging as an attractive co‐assembling component for man‐made stimuli‐responsive as well as for fuel‐driven active systems and materials. Herein, current advances and emerging concepts for ATP‐triggered and ATP‐fueled self‐assemblies and materials are discussed, shedding light on applications and highlighting future developments. By bringing together concepts of different domains, that is from supramolecular chemistry to DNA nanoscience, from equilibrium to non‐equilibrium self‐assembly, and from fundamental sciences to applications, the aim is to cross‐fertilize current approaches with the ultimate aim to bring synthetic ATP‐dependent systems closer to living systems.

Growth factors and mechanical cues synergistically affect cellular functions, triggering a variety of signaling pathways. The molecular levels of such cooperative interactions are not fully understood. Due to its role in osteogenesis, the growth factor bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP‐2) is of tremendous interest for bone regenerative medicine, osteoporosis therapeutics, and beyond. Here, contribution of BMP‐2 signaling and extracellular mechanical cues to the osteogenic commitment of C2C12 cells is investigated. It is revealed that these two distinct pathways are integrated at the transcriptional level to provide multifactorial control of cell differentiation. The activation of osteogenic genes requires the cooperation of BMP‐2 pathway‐associated Smad1/5/8 heteromeric complexes and mechanosensitive YAP/TAZ translocation. It is further demonstrated that the Smad complexes remain bound onto and active on target genes, even after BMP‐2 removal, suggesting that they act as a “molecular memory unit.” Thus, synergistic stimulation with BMP‐2 and mechanical cues drives osteogenic differentiation in a programmable fashion.