Dear colleagues,

Clay minerals have been used in medicine since ancient times due to their large availability and their unique properties. Chemicals can be efficiently loaded into clay minerals to modify the rate, time and target of molecule release. Moreover, this strategy can be used, for example, to protect drugs against aging due to chemical and enzymatic degradation. A new concept of “excipient” is applied to clay minerals, since they are not inert fillers but instead can provide functionalities including targeted release, prevention or reduction of side effects, and increase of product shelf-life.

Chemical modification of clay surfaces is a strategy to tune the clay’s properties. Specifically, it generates a nanoarchitecture with tunable properties for application in the biomedical fields. Currently, only one limitation is associated to the use of clay minerals—due to their inorganic nature, the route of administration is somehow limited and intravenous injection is not yet considered safe. For this reason, the use of clay is limited to the development of creams and implants that require a slow release of the loaded drugs for external medical treatment. Alternatively, they can be used as fillers for oral formulation composites, since there is no systemic absorption.

This Special Issue is focused on current research on clay-based biomaterials from the state-of-the-art to the most recent advancements, with a special focus on the design of ad hoc composites and their applications in biomedical, bioremediation and food packaging fields. Applications range from drug carrier and delivery issues to bone therapy, gene delivery, tissue regeneration and so on. Original contributions addressing the synthesis and characterization of clay hybrids and related mechanisms involved in adsorption and release of active molecules, as well as practical clinical or environmental applications, in the form of full papers or communications are all welcome. Mini-reviews presenting an overview of the state-of-the-art with projections on future perspectives and trends in this domain will also be considered.

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. Journal of Functional Biomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2700 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.

• clay minerals 
• biomaterials 
• organic/inorganic hybrid 
• drug carriers
• food packaging 
• bioremediation