Marine Biomaterial-Based Systems: Chemical Strategies and Biomedical Applications

Dear Colleagues,

The sea is an extraordinary source of organisms from which a countless diversity of marine biomaterials can be extracted for use in a plethora of biomedical applications. Marine biomaterials, which were once regarded as mere by-products and wastes of marine organisms’ processing, are endowed with specific chemical and biological features, including biocompatibility and biodegradability, that make them high-added-value materials for the benefit of human beings. However, most biomaterials do not possess bioactive properties, which seriously limits their use and range of applications in biomedicine. Such properties can be imparted to marine biomaterials by leveraging advanced chemical strategies that turn marine-biomaterial-based derivatives into powerful biomaterials for developing advanced marine biomaterial-based systems to be used in the biomedical field.

This Special Issue, entitled “Marine Biomaterial-Based Systems: Chemical Strategies and Biomedical Applications”, aims to provide the readers of Marine Drugs with the current state-of-the-art and future trends in the use of marine biomaterials, their structure/property enhancement by advanced chemical tools, and their processing into next-generation marine biomaterial-based systems for biomedical applications.

The Special Issue will be divided into two parts: (i) fundamental concepts and structure–property relationships of marine biomaterials and their derivatives; and (ii) their processing into advanced systems in the form of hydrogels, thin films, membranes, particles, capsules, fibres, and scaffolds to be used in the biomedical field, including in biosensing, controlled drug release, nanomedicine, theranostics, bioimaging, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine.

We welcome the submission of original research articles and communications that present the most recent findings by scientists from across the world as well as review papers.

Dr. João Borges
Prof. Dr. João F. Mano
Dr. Laura Cipolla
Dr. João M. M. Rodrigues
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. Marine Drugs 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 2900 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.

• marine biomaterials
• chemical modification
• bioinspired systems
• advanced biomaterial architectures
• tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
• nanomedicine and controlled drug delivery
• bioimaging and theranostics
• biosensing