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Gels, Volume 5, Issue 1

2019 March - 18 articles

Cover Story: Calcium-dependent RTX domains fold into β-roll domains. The surface-exposed amino acids projecting from this domain were mutated to create hydrophobic interfaces. Solutions of the engineered protein domains transition from viscous liquid to hydrogels upon calcium addition, as only calcium enables the formation of the hydrophobic faces involved in cross-linking. Thus, the properties of these novel designed biomaterials can be tuned by controlling calcium concentrations. View this paper.
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Articles (18)

  • Feature Paper
  • Review
  • Open Access
24 Citations
6,289 Views
10 Pages

Recent Progress in Photon Upconverting Gels

  • Pankaj Bharmoria,
  • Nobuhiro Yanai and
  • Nobuo Kimizuka

26 March 2019

Recent progress in the development of gels showing triplet-triplet annihilation based photon upconversion (TTA-UC) is reviewed. Among the two families of upconverting gels reported, those display TTA-UC based on molecular diffusion show performances...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
15 Citations
6,146 Views
16 Pages

13 March 2019

Hydrogels with spatiotemporally tunable mechanical properties have been increasingly employed for studying the impact of tissue mechanics on cell fate processes. These dynamic hydrogels are particularly suitable for recapitulating the temporal stiffe...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
4,961 Views
13 Pages

10 March 2019

In this study, the effect of a composition (protein to fat (P/F) ratio) and a processing condition (homogenization pressure for emulsification of cheese milk) on the texture, microstructure, and bioaccessibility of vitamin D3 of a model acid coagulat...

  • Technical Note
  • Open Access
57 Citations
6,461 Views
10 Pages

8 March 2019

This article is a personal account of the author, who serendipitously entered the field of supramolecular gels nearly two decades ago. A supramolecular synthon approach in the context of crystal engineering was utilized to develop a working hypothesi...

  • Feature Paper
  • Review
  • Open Access
63 Citations
13,568 Views
29 Pages

Peptide Self-Assembly into Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications Related to Hydroxyapatite

  • Manuel Rivas,
  • Luís J. del Valle,
  • Carlos Alemán and
  • Jordi Puiggalí

6 March 2019

Amphiphilic peptides can be self-assembled by establishing physical cross-links involving hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions with divalent ions. The derived hydrogels have promising properties due to their biocompatibility, reversibility,...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
5,541 Views
12 Pages

3 March 2019

In the presence of water, poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide) homopolymers form highly swollen hydrogels that undergo fast and reversible gel↔sol transitions on heating. According to the literature, the transition temperature depends on concentration a...

  • Article
  • Open Access
100 Citations
12,633 Views
14 Pages

Porous Starch Materials via Supercritical- and Freeze-Drying

  • Victor Baudron,
  • Pavel Gurikov,
  • Irina Smirnova and
  • Steve Whitehouse

26 February 2019

The production of porous materials based on starch has been explored with supercritical drying—yielding aerogel—and freeze-drying. The two drying procedures were applied on the same gelling solution of amylomaize starch pasted at 140 °...

  • Review
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,340 Views
9 Pages

25 February 2019

The RTX domains found in some pathogenic proteins encode repetitive peptide sequences that reversibly bind calcium and fold into the unique the β-roll secondary structure. Several of these domains have been studied in isolation, yielding key ins...

  • Article
  • Open Access
25 Citations
6,487 Views
12 Pages

25 February 2019

Chitosan beads attract interest in diverse applications, including drug delivery, biocatalysis and water treatment. They can be formed through several supramolecular pathways, ranging from phase inversion in alkaline solutions, to the ionic crosslink...

  • Review
  • Open Access
48 Citations
8,178 Views
17 Pages

Protein-Based Nanostructures for Food Applications

  • Ana I. Bourbon,
  • Ricardo N. Pereira,
  • Lorenzo M. Pastrana,
  • António A. Vicente and
  • Miguel A. Cerqueira

22 February 2019

Proteins are receiving significant attention for the production of structures for the encapsulation of active compounds, aimed at their use in food products. Proteins are one of the most used biomaterials in the food industry due to their nutritional...

  • Review
  • Open Access
34 Citations
5,515 Views
22 Pages

21 February 2019

Polyampholyte cryogels are a less considered subject in comparison with cryogels based on nonionic, anionic and cationic precursors. This review is devoted to physicochemical behavior, complexation ability and catalytic properties of cryogels based o...

  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
8,059 Views
23 Pages

14 February 2019

Relatively smaller volumes of gelling systems had been used to address conformance problems located near the wellbore in oil reservoirs with harsh temperature and salinity conditions. These gelling systems were formulated with high concentrations of...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
4,437 Views
16 Pages

Influence of Structure-Directing Additives on the Properties of Poly(methylsilsesquioxane) Aerogel-Like Materials

  • Marta Ochoa,
  • Alyne Lamy-Mendes,
  • Ana Maia,
  • António Portugal and
  • Luísa Durães

28 January 2019

The effect of glycerol (GLY) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) additives on the properties of silica aerogel-like monoliths obtained from methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) precursor was assessed. The tested molar ratios of additive/precursor were from 0 to...

  • Article
  • Open Access
42 Citations
7,162 Views
14 Pages

Supramolecular Tripeptide Hydrogel Assembly with 5-Fluorouracil

  • Evelina Parisi,
  • Ana M. Garcia,
  • Domenico Marson,
  • Paola Posocco and
  • Silvia Marchesan

26 January 2019

In this work, we present Thioflavin T fluorescence, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), circular dichroism (CD), Fourier-transformed infrared (FT-IR), and oscillatory rheometry studies applied to an antineoplastic drug, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), emb...

  • Article
  • Open Access
35 Citations
6,075 Views
13 Pages

Physical Interactions Strengthen Chemical Gelatin Methacryloyl Gels

  • Lisa Rebers,
  • Tobias Granse,
  • Günter E.M. Tovar,
  • Alexander Southan and
  • Kirsten Borchers

17 January 2019

Chemically cross-linkable gelatin methacryloyl (GM) derivatives are getting increasing attention regarding biomedical applications. Thus, thorough investigations are needed to achieve full understanding and control of the physico-chemical behavior of...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
7,447 Views
13 Pages

Local Structure of Ca2+ Alginate Hydrogels Gelled via Competitive Ligand Exchange and Measured by Small Angle X-Ray Scattering

  • Kyoko Yamamoto,
  • Yoshiaki Yuguchi,
  • Bjørn Torger Stokke,
  • Pawel Sikorski and
  • David C. Bassett

9 January 2019

Alginates, being linear anionic co-polymers of 1,4-linked residues β-d-ManA (M) and α-l-GulA (G), are widely applied as hydrogel biomaterials due to their favourable in vivo biocompatibility and convenient ionic crosslinking. The “eg...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
21 Citations
6,847 Views
13 Pages

7 January 2019

Cryogels based on hydrophobic polymers combining good mechanical properties with fast responsivity are attractive materials for many applications, such as oil spill removal from water and passive sampler for organic pollutants. We present, here, cryo...

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Gels - ISSN 2310-2861