The goal of biomaterial design in tissue engineering is to identify or fabricate a substance that is innately able (or has been engineered) to assume a desirable form that can be applied to both synthesize a 3D cellular microenvironment for cell accommodation and guide new tissue formation. Biomaterials of human origin are yielding an ever-growing list of products and successful clinical approaches to maintain, enhance or restore tissues and organs. These "raw materials" continue to demonstrate great potential and will have an increasingly remarkable impact on synthetic biology, tissue engineering and clinical regenerative therapies in the future.