Аннотация:The ability of living species to transition between rigid and flexible shapesrepresents one of their survival mechanisms, which has been adopted byvarious human technologies. Such transition is especially desired in medicaldevices as rigidity facilitates the implantation process, while flexibilityand softness favor biocompatibility with surrounding tissue. Traditionalthermoplastics cannot match soft tissue mechanics, while gels leach into thebody and alter their properties over time. Here, a single-component system withan unprecedented drop of Young’s modulus by up to six orders of magnitudefrom the GPa to kPa level at a controlled temperature within 28–43 °C isdemonstrated. This approach is based on brush-like polymer networks withcrystallizable side chains, e.g., poly(valerolactone), affording independentcontrol of melting temperature and Young’s modulus by concurrently alteringside chain length and crosslink density. Softening down to the tissue level atthe physiological temperature allows designing tissue-adaptive implants thatcan be inserted as rigid devices followed by matching the surrounding tissuemechanics at the body temperature. This transition also enables thermalQ3 triggered release of embedded drugs for anti-inflammatory treatment.