Special Issue "Microfluidic-Assisted Synthesis and Modification of Polymeric Materials"
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A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2012)
Special Issue Editor
Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Matthias P. Lutolf
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Bioengineering, Station 15, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Website: http://lscb.epfl.ch
E-Mail: matthias.lutolf@epfl.ch
Phone: +41 21 693 18 76
Interests: biomolecular hydrogels; stimuli-sensitive materials; proteolytically degradable materials; novel conjugation chemistries; materials for tissue engineering and cell culture; 2D and 3D patterning of biomaterials
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The exquisite control of the dynamics of fluids at the micrometer and sub-micrometer scale in microfluidic devices has opened the door for the highly precise synthesis and modification of polymeric materials such as microparticles or biomimetic materials substrates. This special issue focuses on emerging efforts to utilize microfluidic technology in combination with polymer chemistry and physics to build advanced materials with tailor-made properties such as size, shape, elasticity, bioactivity or degradation kinetics. These systems hold great promise for biomedicine as they could overcome key materials challenges imposed by applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering.
Prof. Dr. Matthias P. Lutolf
Guest Editor
Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly 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 500 CHF (Swiss Francs). English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.
Keywords
- microfluidics
- polymers
- polymer conjugates
- microparticles
- hydrogels
- drug delivery
- tissue engineering
Published Papers (4 papers)
  Polymers 2012, 4(2), 1084-1108; doi:10.3390/polym4021084
Received: 14 March 2012; in revised form: 17 April 2012 / Accepted: 17 April 2012 / Published: 23 April 2012
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Polymers 2012, 4(2), 1278-1310; doi:10.3390/polym4021278
Received: 29 May 2012 / Accepted: 13 June 2012 / Published: 20 June 2012
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Polymers 2012, 4(3), 1349-1398; doi:10.3390/polym4031349
Received: 2 March 2012; in revised form: 4 May 2012 / Accepted: 18 June 2012 / Published: 3 July 2012
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Polymers 2012, 4(3), 1554-1579; doi:10.3390/polym4031554
Received: 4 May 2012; in revised form: 28 July 2012 / Accepted: 2 August 2012 / Published: 5 September 2012
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Submitted Papers
Type of Paper: Review
Title: Microfluidic-based Synthesis of Hydrogel Particles for Encapsulation of Cells and Cell-based Drug Delivery
Author: Jiandi Wan
Affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; E-Mail: jiandiw@princeton.edu
Abstract: Microfluidic-based generation of hydrogel particles offers an unparalleled control of the sizes, shapes, and morphologies of the particles, and, therefore, finds a wide range of applications in drug delivery, construction of three-dimensional extracellular matrix, and sensing. Particularly, controlled encapsulation of cells in hydrogel particles is of great interest for research in tissue engineering and cell-based drug delivery and therapy. In this article, we present the classification and functions of different hydrogels, including natural biopolymers and synthetic polymers, for the synthesis of hydrogel particles. Then, we focus on the current status and challenges of microfluidic-based synthesis of hydrogel particles and cell encapsulation. Furthermore, the potential applications of hydrogen particles with encapsulated cells in cell-based drug delivery and therapy are discussed.
Type of Paper: Review
Title: Microfluidics and Nano Integration for Synthesis and Sensing
Authors: Muthukumaran Packirisamy and Simona Badilescu
Affiliation: Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montréal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada; E-Mail: pmuthu@alcor.concordia.ca
Abstract: The recent progress in the development of polymers and inorganic nanomaterials in a microfluidic environment is reviewed. Microfluidics exploits fluid mechanics to create particles with a narrow range of sizes and offers a finely controllable route to tune the shape and composition of hybrid materials as well. The advantages of both continous flow- and droplet-based synthesis of polymers and nanoparticles, in comparison with the traditional beaker or stirred flasks methods are discussed in detail by using numerous examples from the literature as well as from the authors’ work. A special attention is paid to metal-polymer nanocomposites prepared through microfluidic routes and their application in biosensing Directions in the future development of microfluidic synthesis of high quality polymers and nanoparticles are discussed.
Title: Polymer Based Microfluidic Devices for Pharmacy, Biology and Biomedical Engineering
Authors: Ahmed Alrifaiy1,2, Olof A. Lindahl1,2,3 and Kerstin Ramser1,2
Affiliations: 1 Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden; E-Mail: kerstin.ramser@ltu.se
2 CMTF, Centre for Biomedical Engineering and Physics, Luleå University of Technology and Umeå University, Luleå and Umeå, Sweden
3 Department of Radiation Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden
Abstract: The review gives a perspective of microfluidic technologies with focus on applications in the fields of biology, medicine, pharmacy and tissue engineering. Design and fabrication will be discussed in terms of specific biological concerns such as biocompatibility and cell viability. Current up to date applications and developments on microscale genetic analysis, cell culture, cell manipulation, biosensors, pathogen detection systems, diagnostic devices, high-throughput screening and biomaterials synthesis for tissue engineering will be presented and compared. The review will touch aspects of commercialization and research trends of microfluidics as a possible fundamental tool for new, easy to use, and cost-effective measurements at the cell/tissue level.
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Authors: Anderson Shum1, Hans M. Wyss2 and Zhendong Cheng3
Affiliations: 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Email: ashum@hku.hk
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Email: H.M.Wyss@tue.nl
3 Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA; Email: zcheng@mail.che.tamu.edu
Abstract: Since the development of soft lithography, the field of Microfluidics has seen a rapid rise, with the number of publications in the field growing exponentially. Microfluidic devices based on soft elastomers offer a rich toolbox that has been exploited to study a wide range of materials and processes at microscopic length scales. The most prominent examples are in biological applications, where microfluidic devices are now routinely employed for high throughput screening, diagnostics and even for directed evolution. The rich toolbox provided by Microfluidics has great potential also in other areas, such as catalysis, separation technology, drug delivery, or the synthesis and assembly of functional materials. Besides a growing research activity in these areas, this remarkably rich toolbox has still not been fully exploited. In this article we focus on the application of microfluidics for controlling and studying the properties of materials at mesoscopic length scales. We illustrate how the whole process from the assembly of materials to their characterization can be accessed and controlled in microfluidic devices with a precision and repeatability that is not possible using bulk methods. We review recent progress in the area of drop-based microfluidics, which has enabled the assembly of drops and particles with complex structures such as colloidosomes, coreshell particles, porous particles with controlled morphology, and the synthesis of nonspherical particles. We also consider recently developed methods for probing the viscoelastic properties of soft materials at microscopic length scales. Finally, we discuss how microfluidics can be further exploited to precisely control the assembly of soft materials at small length scales, and how the reach of high-throughput methods could be extended from biochemical applications to the fields of materials synthesis and assembly. Microfluidic methods are ideally suited for exploring new processing routes for creating functional materials with precisely controlled properties, tailored to their function in catalysis, drug delivery, separation technology and energy applications. Future applications of microfluidics should take full advantage of the many benefits of microfluidics technology, thereby enabling unprecedented control over the mesoscale structure and properties of materials.
Last update: 11 April 2012