Programming Life in Soft Matter: Advances in Hydrogel-Based Living Materials

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to contribute to this Special Issue, entitled “Programming Life in Soft Matter: Advances in Hydrogel-Based Living Materials”. The convergence of synthetic biology and polymer science has opened transformative pathways for addressing pressing challenges in environmental remediation, medicine, and advanced manufacturing. Among these strategies, Engineered Living Materials (ELMs) have emerged as a promising and versatile platform.

ELMs represent a rapidly growing area that integrates principles from synthetic biology, polymer chemistry, and biofabrication to create genetically programmed, adaptive, and functional materials. By combining living cells with polymeric matrices into a single material framework, ELMs enable control over material behavior and function. This integration allows for living components to drive active processes such as bioproduction, sensing, and environmental responsiveness while the surrounding material matrix provides mechanical stability, spatial organization, and tunable physical properties. As a result, ELMs can exhibit unique functionalities such as self-healing, shape morphing, controlled degradation, and long-term adaptability.

The assembly of these living materials into devices and structures introduces a new paradigm for programmable matter with promising applications and impacts in biotechnology, biomedicine, energy systems, and sustainable materials. In particular, the design and fabrication of ELMs that are compatible with advanced manufacturing technologies such as additive manufacturing, microfluidic encapsulation, electrospinning, and light-based patterning have increased their relevance for practical and scalable applications.

While ELMs can be realized using a wide range of material systems, this Special Issue will focus specifically on hydrogel-based ELMs, covering topics ranging from material design and fabrication to functional performance and real-world applications. We welcome contributions that focus on hydrogels derived from microbially produced extracellular matrices, as well as the biohybrid, biopolymer-based, or synthetic polymer-based hydrogels employed in ELM formulations.

Dr. Gökçe Altin Yavuzarslan
Dr. Leila Deravi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Gels 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 2100 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.

• engineered living materials
• cell encapsulation
• synthetic biology
• biopolymers
• cell encapsulation
• 3d bioprinting
• bioproduction
• biohybrid materials
• adaptive materials
• sustainability