“Smart” Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2020) | Viewed by 10050
Special Issue Editor
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
“Smart” (often referred to as “responsive”) materials are defined as materials that exhibit a sharp, and usually reversible change of their physicochemical properties (i.e., a change in shape, volume, solubility, or molecular conformation) as a result of an application of an external stimulus, such as a change in temperature or pH.
In recent years, the field of “smart” nanomaterials for biomedical applications has evolved from the basic principles of structure-to-function at the nanoscale, to intricate nanostructures and properties that find numerous uses in the biomedical field, spanning from (bio-) responsive drug delivery systems for precision medicine, targeted therapeutics, and nanomedicine, to nanosensors and actuators, and nanomaterials’ ensembles for cell therapies and tissue engineering.
The development of the field has been mostly fuelled by the integration of bottom–up and top–down biofabrication methods with biorthogonal chemistries and controlled polymerization methods that allow for unprecedented architectural control and fidelity of the final structure at the nansoscale. The field of smart nanomaterials is dominated by polymers followed by small molecular ensembles (i.e., low molecular weight gelators, lipids, etc.), plasmonic/metallic or inorganic nanoparticles and other building components of biological origin (i.e., RNA/DNA strands, proteins, peptides, etc.).
“Smart” materials can now be designed to respond to a multitude of stimuli such as biochemical cues, and environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, pH and ionic strength, specific chemical analytes, as well as externally applied stimuli derived from magnetic or electric fields. It is expected that as we refine our fabrication/synthetic methods, these “smart” materials will start to truly emulate or even augment the delicate responsive properties which are found in Nature and, hence, it is anticipated that even more complex nanomaterials will emerge in the near future.
We invite colleagues to contribute to this Special Issue on the aforementioned concepts and keywords on the rapidly developing field of smart nanomaterials for biomedical applications.
Dr. George PasparakisGuest Editor
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Keywords
- Responsive polymers
- Hydrogels
- Smart surfaces
- Scaffolds for tissue engineering
- Injectable materials for cell delivery
- Responsive micelles for precision medicine
- Plasmonic nanomaterials
- Self-healing materials
- Stimuli responsive drug delivery systems
- Nanosensors
- Diagnostics