Progress in Polymer Science

Biologically inspired self-assembly processes of amphiphilic copolymers have received an increasing attention for creating innovative and highly advanced functional materials for various biomedical applications. Polymersomes are versatile nanosystems with tremendous potential due to their increased colloidal stability, tunable membrane properties, chemical versatility, and the ability to accommodate a broad range of drugs and biomolecules. In this review, we present the principles of copolymers self-assembly and associated parameters that control the resulting self-assembled morphologies, and various methodologies developed for fabrication of polymersomes. We attempt to discuss how polymersome platforms can be applied for versatile biomedical research, from simple passive nanocarriers for drug delivery to functionalized polymersomes for active targeting approaches and advanced nanoreactors, and protocells to mimic structure and functions of biological systems. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.