Smart Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications, Volume II

Dear Colleagues,

Materials are considered “smart” when they are “responsive” to stimuli ranging from internal biochemical cues to environmental factors (stress, temperature, humidity, pH, ionic strength, and specific chemical analytes) or to externally applied stimuli derived from magnetic or electric fields. These materials often exhibit dynamic and reversible changes in their critical physicochemical proprieties (e.g., their shape, volume, solubility, or molecular conformation), which can be repeated many times.

Novel biomaterials with enhanced performance and unique properties are required in fields such as tissue engineering, immunoengineering, cancer research, immunomodulation, drug delivery systems, and antimicrobial materials. A material’s smartness is more important if the system is highly biocompatible and has poor toxicity, and thus, depends on the physico-chemical properties of the system (e.g., its composition, shape, size, specific surface area, or surface charge). The field of smart materials is currently dominated by polymers, followed by small molecular ensembles (e.g., low-molecular-weight gelators and lipids), plasmonic/metallic or inorganic nanoparticles, and other building components of biological origin (e.g., RNA/DNA strands, proteins, and peptides).

The development of smart materials for targeted application in the biomedical field (from drug delivery systems for precision medicine, targeted therapeutics, and medicine to sensors and actuators, and ensembles for cell therapies and tissue engineering) requires the collaboration of chemists, biologists, physicists, pharmacologists, and physicians, who often have different objectives. Therefore, we invite authors working in these fields to contribute full papers, communications, and reviews to this Special Issue entitled “Smart Materials for Biomedical Applications”. This Special Issue represents an opportunity for researchers in fields ranging from material science to biomolecular design, engineering, and medical physics to combine different aspects of their work.

Dr. Magdalena Aflori
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.

• biomimetic materials
• nanocarriers
• porous materials
• composite materials
• hydrogels
• biocompatibility
• surface modifications
• metallic particles
• biopolymers
• stimuli responsive

• Smart Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications in Nanomaterials (6 articles)