Biological metal–organic frameworks (BioMOFs) are a new class of crystalline porous materials developed in the last decade that represent a subclass of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). Biomolecules introduced as components of MOFs confer biological compatibility for this emerging type of material, thus providing new opportunities for applications in biology, medicine, and a variety of other fields. In this review, to focus on host–guest chemistry and applications in biology and biochemistry, we provide an overview of recent examples of BioMOFs comprising multifunctional biomolecular ligands and transition metal ions. The bio-ligands include nucleobases, amino acids, polypeptides, proteins, cyclodextrin, porphyrin/metalloporphyrin and others. The host–guest chemistry of BioMOFs is highlighted in light of supramolecular recognition by different technologies. The potential applications of BioMOFs in several promising research fields such as drug delivery, enantioseparation and biomimetic catalysis are also summarized. In the last section, the outlook and possible challenges in advancing these research topics are illustrated.

生物金属有机骨架（BioMOFs）是近十年来开发的一类新型的晶体多孔材料，代表了金属有机骨架（MOFs）的一个子类。作为MOF的成分引入的生物分子赋予了这种新兴类型的材料生物相容性，从而为在生物学，医学和许多其他领域中的应用提供了新的机会。在这篇综述中，为了专注于客体化学及其在生物学和生物化学中的应用，我们概述了包含多功能生物分子配体和过渡金属离子的BioMOF的最新实例。生物配体包括核碱基，氨基酸，多肽，蛋白质，环糊精，卟啉/金属卟啉等。鉴于不同技术的超分子识别，突出了BioMOFs的宿主-客体化学。还概述了BioMOFs在药物输送，对映体分离和仿生催化等几个有前途的研究领域中的潜在应用。在上一节中，阐述了推进这些研究主题的前景和可能面临的挑战。