Recent Trends in Gels-Based Drug Delivery Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Hydrogels have been of major research interest for several decades, attracting scientists in the fields of biomaterials and basic polymer chemistry. Hydrogels contain a large amount of water inside the network structures, serve as an open system capable of exchanging energy and substances with their surroundings, and therefore can exhibit responses to biomolecules and biomacromolecules. When it comes to bioapplications, especially those with drug delivery systems in mind, highly stimuli-sensitive and/or hierarchically controlled material design is required in order for efficient interactions with endogenous low levels of biomolecules.

This Special Issue focuses on “Recent Trends in Gel-Based Drug Delivery Systems” and the related biosensing, theranostics, and any therapeutic applications. It aims to update our attention toward recent hydrogel-based bioapplications and discuss new directions for methodologies to design such hydrogels.

We hope that this Special Issue collection will aid in a comprehensive understanding of the current state-of-the-art research and contribute to further developments to tackle new challenges in drug delivery systems.

Prof. Dr. Akira Matsumoto
Dr. Yuta Koda
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• drug delivery system
• biomaterials
• hydrogels
• designing network structures
• stimuli-responsive
• sensors
• theranostics
• biomacromolecule conjugation and encapsulation
• injectable gels
• sol–gel transition
• liquid–liquid phase separation
• biodegradable