Water near bioinert self-assembled monolayers

For a long time, water has been speculated to play an essential role in the interactions of proteins and cells with artificial biocompatible materials. The current question is how water molecules at the interfaces affect the adsorption of proteins and the adhesion of cells. To answer this question, we introduce recent works that investigated the interfacial behavior of water near self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) by different types of analytical techniques. By combining these findings, we discuss how interfacial water affects the protein and cell resistance of various bioinert SAMs. Recent works revealed that protein and cell resistance of bioinert self-assembled monolayers originates in the physical barrier of the interfacial water. We review the history of the previous works that attempted to clarify the underlying mechanism and discuss prospects to apply the findings to design new biomaterials.