REVIEW PAPER ABSTRACT 44

 Multifunctional nanocomposites which exhibit well-defined physical properties and encode

spatiotemporally-controlled responses are emerging as components for advanced responsive
systems. For biomedical applications magnetic nanocomposite materials have attracted
significant attention due to their ability to respond to spatially and temporally varying magnetic
fields. The current state-of-the-art in development and fabrication of magnetic hydrogels
toward biomedical applications is described. There is accelerating progress in the field due to
advances in manufacturing capabilities. Three categories can be identified: i) Magnetic
hydrogelation, DC magnetic fields are used during solidification/gelation for aligning particles; ii)
additive manufacturing of magnetic materials, 3D printing technologies are used to develop
spatially-encoded magnetic properties, and more recently; iii) magnetic additive manufacturing,
magnetic responses are applied during the printing process to develop increasingly complex
structural arrangement that may recapitulate anisotropic tissue structure and function. The
magnetic responsiveness of conventionally and additively manufactured magnetic hydrogels are
described along with recent advances in soft magnetic robotics, and the categorization is related
to final architecture and emergent properties. Future challenges and opportunities, including
the anticipated role of combinatorial approaches in developing 4D-responsive functional
materials for tackling long-standing problems in biomedicine including production of 3D-
specified responsive cell scaffolds are discussed. © 2022 The Authors. Advanced Science
published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

 Multifunctional nanocomposites with controllable responses are being used for advanced
systems. Magnetic nanocomposites are popular in biomedical applications. Three categories of
magnetic hydrogels are emerging for biomedical use: magnetic hydrogelation, additive
manufacturing, and magnetic additive manufacturing. Future challenges include developing 4D-
responsive materials for biomedical use.