Beyond separation: Membranes towards medicine

Due to the global epidemic outbreak in recent years, membrane research and membrane-derived products have been of increasingly wide interest for medical applications. Currently, a new but important development direction of membranes in medicine goes beyond the separation function of the membrane itself to realize multifunctional integration. With the introduction of additional functions such as scaffold, responsiveness, and sensing, membranes have exhibited excellent performance in the areas of tissue engineering, drug delivery and disease diagnosis. From this perspective, we will review the recent progress made by membranes in the medical field and emphasize the principles of function integration and separation. Possible challenges will be proposed, and future development directions for medicine-related membranes will be discussed.