Bioinorganic supramolecular coordination complexes and their biomedical applications

The field of Bioinorganic Supramolecular Chemistry is an emerging research area including metal-based supramolecules resulting from coordination-driven self-assembly (CDSA), whereby metal ions and organic ligands can be easily linked by metal–ligand bonds via Lewis' acid/base interactions. The focus of this ‘In a Nutshell’ review will be on the family of supramolecular coordination complexes, discrete entities formed by CDSA, which have recently captured widespread attention as a new class of versatile multifunctional materials with broad biological applications including molecular recognition, biosensing, therapy, imaging and drug delivery. Herein, we provide a summary of the state-of-the-art use of these systems in biomedicine, with some selected representative examples, as well as our visions of the challenges and possible directions in the field.