PolyHIPE Polymers in Biological Applications

Dear Colleagues,

PolyHIPE polymer (also known as PolyHIPE) was discovered at the Unilever Research Port Sunlight Laboratory in England in the 1980s. I was on the team developing PolyHIPE and its applications at Unilever for ten years. PolyHIPE is a unique interconnected porous material of which the properties can be controlled over an unprecedented and unequalled range. It can be processed to obtain uniform pore structure with the pore size ranging from 1 μm to 1 cm, while its porosity can reach 99%; it can be organic, inorganic, biological or a combination of the three. Its applications range from separation processes to nuclear processing, foods, controlled release, chemical /biochemical reactors, catalysis, energy conversions and the emerging technology of process intensification in agriculture, biology, and chemistry.

The aim of this Special Issue is restricted to the biological applications of PolyHIPE for the immobilization of cells (mammalian or plant cells or microorganisms), for which the degree of homogeneity is essential for enhanced proliferation, viability, productivity and differentiation of the culture. The structural and biochemical homogeneity and functionality of PolyHIPE therefore require special processing techniques which are currently lacking. The biological applications of PolyHIPE can be considered to contribute to bioprocess intensification, with levels of enhancement in the range of ca. 5–500-fold compared with the established processes. The intensification levels in agroprocesses are more modest, at ca. 2–3 fold in terms of crop yield which however surpasses any other technique in agriculture.

Within the remit of this Special Issue, original or review papers are invited on the following topics:

1. Tissue engineering, implants and medical applications;
2. Biotechnology: production of biochemicals such as enzymes, fermentation products, biofuels, bioethanol and drugs;
3. Environmental soil and water bioremediation;
4. Agriculture: plant cell cultures, synthetic rhizosphere, artificial root system for biomass and crop yield enhancement, biofertilizers, biological nitrogen fixation;
5. Climate change mitigation techniques;
6. Bioanalytics and biosensors;
7. Functional PolyHIPE synthesis for biological applications through the activation of differentiation pathways via intercellular signalling, requiring high structural homogeneity;
8. PolyHIPE-based biochemical reactors and their performance;
9. Theoretical analysis of the enhancement of PolyHIPE-supported cell/microorganism proliferation, productivity and differentiation pathways as a function of PolyHIPE pore size and biochemistry.

Prof. Dr. Galip Akay
Guest Editor

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• polyHIPE
• polymers
• biomaterials
• tissue engineering
• biochemical reactors