Biomaterials Approaches for Disease Modeling

Dear Colleagues,

Advances in modern biology are enabling unprecedented insights into the underlying mechanisms of disease, employing technologies ranging from multi-omics approaches for characterizing biochemical signaling pathways to patient-specific in vitro assays utilizing cells differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells. There is tremendous opportunity to develop novel engineered systems that leverage these advancements in biology to better recapitulate diseased cellular phenotypes “in a dish”. Such ex vivo approaches stand to realize the goals of personalized medicine, for instance, by enabling individualized drug toxicology assessments, improving drug screening to accelerate identification of promising drug candidates, and increasing the inclusion of underrepresented and underserved populations in pre-clinical drug development.

This Special Issue on “Biomaterials Approaches for Disease Modeling” will focus on original research papers and comprehensive reviews covering the use of engineered materials systems to recapitulate key aspects of diseased tissue in vitro. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Three-dimensional culture of patient-derived organoids to model monogenic diseases, cancer, or infection.
2. Development of microphysiological systems to model and characterize disease phenotypes.
3. 2D and 3D approaches to direct morphogenesis of stem cell-derived microtissues, such as photolithographic patterning and 3D printing/additive manufacturing.
4. Novel chemical approaches to build complex cellular microenvironments.
5. Stimuli responsive materials to mimic disease progression in vitro.
6. Development of preclinical drug screening platforms with improved predictive ability and/or reproducibility.

We look forward to receiving your contributions to this Special Issue.

Dr. Christopher M. Madl
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• biomaterials
• disease modeling
• microphysiological systems
• organoids
• drug screening
• patient-derived cells
• induced pluripotent stem cells
• additive manufacturing