The invention comprises anti-inflammatory conformal barriers with controllable permeability properties that can be applied to living cells prior to transplant, and methods for coating living cells with conformal barriers. The coatings comprise polymer layers deposited on a cell surface by layer-by-layer polymer assembly, wherein each layer contains a positive and a negative polymer pair. The barriers can be actively anti-inflammatory through incorporation of anticoagulant and/or anti-inflammatory agents into the barrier.